Johnson to rescue athletics yet again

At times of crisis, enter The Great Persuader. For some time the troubled world of track and field athletics has looked to the honeyed image of Michael Johnson as the living proof that, in an age stained by scandal, at least some of the old, cherished values are still present. Frequently athletics has been a hard sell as a sport, haunted by the doomsday scenario of self destruction, lurched under the impact of a litany of well documented drugs stories.

Now, as track icon Merlene Ottey prepares to fight to retrieve her reputation, another is being pushed centre stage in the hope of deflecting at least some of the flak now being directed at the first and most universal of the ancient sports.

After days of uncertainty, Johnson has arrived in Seville for the eighth world championships, opening tomorrow. And of those charged with the responsibility of presenting a sporting extravanganza to remember in the city's pristine new stadium, the big Texan hasn't come an hour too soon.

Athletics desperately needs another imperial performance from Johnson to stay the gathering storm clouds and ensure that the next nine days are not lost to the morbid debate on a discipline said to be in irreversible decline.

It's scarcely been the brightest of summers so far for the Olympic and world champion who pulled up abruptly with a damaged hamstring at the Grand Prix meeting in Stockholm and then failed to show when the dollars were being strewn like confetti at Zurich last week.

High profile athletes don't normally miss this annual payout without good reason and when Johnson cancelled his trip to Switzerland, opening the way for a 400 metres win for fellow American Gregory Young, the word was that the champion was in some trouble.

To be fair, they were saying much the same things in the build-up to the last world championships in Athens two years ago until the Texan strolled on to the track and in moments of enduring splendour, proceeded to demolish the veracity of the grapevine yet again.

There are those who genuinely believe that at least some of the old, searing speed has left the big man. That may or may not be substantiated here in Spain but the certainty is that if he is to be deposed, it will have to be done the hard way.

In the meantime, the aristocracy of the IAAF are happy that they can still call on the promotional qualities of a man who presents the acceptable face of athletics at a stage when even the greats are coming under increased scrutiny.

Yesterday, Johnson was deployed on a different mission when together with Maurice Green and Marion Jones he presented himself at a press conference to stress the need for the authorities to look again at some of the drug testing procedures currently being used.

Even by the harsh standards of modern years, the Ottey affair has registered a huge hit on the scale of athletics scandals. No less than Johnson, she was seen as one of the supreme ambassadors of the track who handled the occasional rough and tumble of her sport with the elegance of royalty.

Not all of those who believe that there may just have been a miscarriage of justice, are Jamaican. And the presence of Johnson, Green and Jones at yesterday's conference almost certainly reflected the unease among many athletes in the current debate on the Nandrolone issue.

For a substance which occurs naturally in small quantities in the body, the borderlines are not defined to everyone's satisfaction. Now there is a growing clamour for more precise rulings.

Clearly, the Nandrolone controversy has the capacity to divide the athletics fraternity as never before and even as the Ottey story rolled on yesterday, there was widespread speculation in Seville that three more athletes are about to be named and shamed.

One of them is thought to be a British woman and it is this kind of hearsay which is prompting calls for an overhaul of the current system to ensure that names are not leaked into the public domain until such time as the charges have been substantiated beyond the point of reasonable doubt.

Even IFFA officials are known to be upset about the manner in which the news of Ottey's positive test broke on Tuesday. It came at a time when it was likely to cause maximum embarrassment for the sport and, no less than the sordid Ben Johnson affair at Seoul, is destined to be forever linked with these championships.

To that extent the timing of the announcement was unfortunate and has done nothing to appease the fears of those who believe that athletics may be inflicting unnecessary scars on itself.