Their happy pace

A SHADOW LIFTS FROM WOMEN'S SPRINTING

- Kunal Pradhan

Track is sport in its purest form. No rotating orb to smash through a net like in football; no mastering the tools like in golf; no hurling projectiles at each other like in tennis or badminton; no judging the swing through the air or deviation off the surface like in cricket; no inherent violence like in boxing or wrestling. Instead, it's one pair of legs simply striving to outrun another over a designated distance in a scintillating battle of strength, grit and technique.

Within track, the sprints are the most unadulterated expression of excellence.

They don't need guile like the middle-distance races do; nor do they call for the fine balance between pace and endurance that the marathon exemplifies. The sprints are raw pace, unbridled power, and a visceral desire to hit the tape faster than the next person while holding nothing back over 10, 20 or 40 seconds.

But sprinting has long battled the most-dreaded D-word in sport: doping.

On the men's side, Michael Johnson changed the paradigm in the 400m in the 1990s, dominating the field and obliterating the world record to lift the cloud over the previous decade, when dope allegations flew thick and fast. In the 100m and the 200m, Usain Bolt's arrival in the Aughts pulverised the past in a manner that only the greatest athlete ever could have.