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The former world and Olympics champion has slammed the obsession with fast times and records in athletics for killing the competitiveness of the sport.
American sprint legend Justin Gatlin feels athletics has lost the meaning of competing with the focus now being on first times and records.
Gatlin says many tight races have been witnessed in recent years but the focus is rarely on how competitive it was but who had the best time or who broke the record, which is watering down the sport.
The former Olympic and multiple world champion pointed to the 100m where sprinters who clock 10 seconds are rarely mentioned in high regard with only those who record sub-10 times considered good enough.
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“Our sport really needs to focus on the essence of competing, we have lost that,” said Gatlin.
“We get enamored by fast times and it can be a really competitive race and it can be to the line and if somebody run and 10.01 or 10.00, we are like ahh..it was okay.
“Not too long ago, a 10.00 was a very respectable time, as is should be, and still is. We have been spoiled by that in the last previous generation and I think we should go back to what the essence of track and field really is. It is competition.”
Indeed, track and field meetings have been all about fast times and records set in recent years with athletes also striving to achieve the same with focus on how competitive an event was not there anymore.
The Paris Olympics witnessed a lot of these when focus turned to the clock rather than the competition with some races separated by mere milliseconds as witnessed in the 100m final where both Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson recorded 9.78 but the American was declared winner with a 0.005 second margin.
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