Like a rat in a maze, I scuttling round the walls of the building, scouting for a power point for the lap top. Its idiosyncratic battery seems to have a mind, but barely a life of its own.

At Gatwick airport, waiting for the flight home. So the writing has to be done in the terminal. Ah, the glamour of the sports hack's life. The place is heaving. Bawling weans and frustrated parents. They can't get through secvurity because of a fire alarm, apparently.

Like a rat in a maze, I scuttling round the walls of the building, scouting for a power point for the lap top. Its idiosyncratic battery seems to have a mind, but barely a life of its own.

Like the aforementioned rat, that life is short. And mine is shortening as I curse its ephemeral span: "3:40 hours (88%) remaining" says the silent but somehow strident window on the lap top.

There is, as many will have learned to their cost, barely a seat for the comfort of passengers here. Finding a seat and power point juxtaposed is like finding a winning lottery ticket. Right now I'll settle for the former.

I consider the "priority seating" area, for those needing assistance. I doubt if catering for frustrated hacks is what the BAA have in mind. Consider it, but reject it. Not because I don't want to cause a fuss - it's the one area of the airport with hardly anyone there, a blessed oasis - but because I am obliged to admit the possibility that nobody will bat an eyelid. Serious blow to the ego when one is forced to confront the reality that one's evident decrepitude may qualify for "priority seating".

I've frequently squatted on the floor with my back against the wall and laptop on my knees when I could find an electrical point, but in the absence of that, today I eventually settle for a seat and no power.

The second day of the Aviva London Grand Prix has been gripping, but hardly auspicious for Britain - just one winner, Michael Bingham in the 400m, He's beaten double Olympic champion Angelo Taylor, but with a time that does not make the world top-10 for this year. So a place in the final is an outside best.

The Emsley Carr Mile, once a hotbed of British talent, again proves a showcase for a Kenyan, albeit a naturalised American born in the Rift Valley: Bernard Lagat. But he has won Olympic medals for Kenya in his previous existence. There have been 12 African-born winners in the past 15 years, and just one Brit. But more of that in our print edition tomorrow.

Tyson Gay wins the 200m, easing off in 20.00 flat. He says he is in the shape of his life, but paradoxically can't spend any time with us. He has a groin injury and spends half an hour with the physio before returning.

He says the problem has been there for years, and it's only emerged because he runs so fast. "I am running on faith," he says.

We question whether this is ritual posturing ahead of the World Championships in Berlin, where he is due to defend all three sprint titles against Usain Bolt. The Jamaican won all three gold medals at the Olympics with world record performances, so this is shaping as the greatest sprint match-up in the sport's history.

Ricky Simms, Bolt's agent, dismisses the possibility that Gay is playing games.

Bolt himself says he hopes Gay is fit to run. It's been established that Yohan Blake, his training partner, and the world's fastest teenager at 9.93 seconds, is one of those who has tested positive for what is alleged to be a minor stimulant. Sheri-Ann Brooks, another Jamaican, who won Commonwealth Games 100m gold in Melbouren three years ago, is also on a list of five athletes who tested positive for the same drug.

They are likely to escape with just a warning. But this could easily have been another body-blow to the fragile equilibrium of athletics

FRIDAY:

Up at the crack of dawn for early flight to London for tonight's Aviva Grand Prix at Crystal Palace. It's windy and threatening rain at Glasgow airport, and I pray it will be better in London. It isn't. It's worse. Showers, and 15 degrees.

I'm minded to wind up my southern colleagues, who never miss a chance to disparage Scottish conditions at Scotstoun or Meadowbank. I remind them that the last Caucasian to win Olympic 100m gold trained and raced constantly in these conditions. Allan Wells climbing Olympus from foothills in the shadow of Arthurs Seat remains a telling point, as well as reminding what is possible for those who have the will.

Soimetimes, however, the will goes awry. Learn on landing that five Jamaicans have tested positive for unspecified drugs. World reocd-holder Usain Bolt and predecessor Asafa POwell are said not to be among them, but it still casts a cloud darker than the weather over the day. So I put my anticipation of a world 100 metres record this evening on hold, and reflect that, given our weather, it's little wonder a world sprint best has still yet to be set, outright, in the United KIngdom.

The man who came closest - Asafa Powell - is running tonight at the Palace against another Jamaican, Usain Bolt, who took the record from him. I was at Gateshead three years ago when Powell equalled his own world best.

I wrote then that he had grinned like the man who shot the sheriff. He had claimed the cartridge from the starter, and kept it for posterity. He held it between his thumb and forefinger, and showed it to me, like a schoolboy eagerly flaunting a trophy. Conditions that day had been far from perfect, and the scribes who make a living by reporting this sport were as much in awe at Powell then as they now are about triple Olympic champion and world record-holder Bolt.

Conditions may mute the inevitable talk of a world best tonight. But perhaps not. Powell, after all, has thrice been below 10 seconds at the Palace. That used to be the bench-mark of world class, but Bolt now shells out sub-10s almost like the Bird's Eye factory delivers peas. And he does it rain, hail or shine.

He ran 9.79 in Paris a week ago. "Il pleut comme une vache qui pisse" a French colleague informed me. We think we know what he meant. Bolt is clearly in shape, though insists he is "only 85% fit".

What might he do if every component comes together? That's a bit like asking how high Bubka might have gone if he'd really tried, instead of nudging the world pole vault record skyward one lucrative centimetre at a time. His event was less weather dependent, but I suspect the showman in Bolt may be holding himself back - what would he do for an encore? Dancing would not suffice.

His coach, Glenn Mills, is convinced Bolt can run 9.52. Bolt trusts him implicitly, so his mind is receptive. So much of sprinting is in the head. And Bolt knows this.

He also knows that his American arch rival, Tyson Gay, will be watching tonight. Gay won the 100M and 200m titles at the last World Championships, in Osaka two years ago, and will defend them next month in Berlin. He has already run the world's leading time this year, 9.77. But Gay won't race Bolt this evening. He is doing the 200m tomorrow and hopes to lay down a marker with something around 19.5.

So tonight Bolt will treat Gay to nothing other than a performance worthy of their growing rivalry and respect. Even so, it's all posturing until they go to their marks together in Berlin. It promises to be an interesting summer.