Justin Gatlin was jeered by some of the crowd as the 100 metres world champion returned to the London Stadium to be presented with his gold medal today.
The two-time drug cheat escaped the expected barrage of boos, with plenty of cheers helping to drown out the hostile reaction, but the applause was of course nothing in comparison to the ovation afforded to Usain Bolt, stood to his left on the bronze medal step.
Gatlin blew a kiss to the crowd and clasped his hands together as he received his medal from world athletics chief Coe, who hours earlier had branded his triumph "not the perfect script".
Speaking on BBC 5 Live's Sportsweek, the president of world athletics' governing body said: "I'm hardly going to sit here and tell you I'm eulogistic that somebody that has served two bans in our sport would walk off with one of our glittering prizes."
But tonight the 35-year-old was not greeted by quite the cacophony of boos that his every previous appearance in the stadium had been, particularly his victory over Bolt in 9.92 seconds some 21 hours earlier.
Perhaps the retiring Jamaican's post-race words - "He deserves to be here, because he's done his time," said Bolt - had had some effect.
There was confusion earlier over whether the medal ceremony had been shifted from a prime spot in the middle of the evening session to its time of 6.50pm, 10 minutes before the action got under way.
Initially it appeared it had, with the assumption being the change was due to fears over the reception Gatlin would receive.
But the IAAF insisted the time was not changed, with the mix-up blamed on an admin error.
Post A Comment:
0 comments:
Post a Comment