THE 32 adverse doping findings unveiled yesterday by the International Association of Athletics Federations is welcome, nay overdue, but will do little to dispel the impression that the sport is in crisis. If you labour under the fragile belief that athletics is clean, then pray for a 100 metres victory by Jamaica's Usain Bolt when the World Championships get underway a week on Saturday in Beijing.

Bolt returns to the Bird's Nest where he set three world records at the 2008 Olympics, but the 100m rankings this year are dominated by men who have served suspensions – seven of the eight fastest times are by just two reinstated offenders, and five of the top 10 in the world rankings have convictions.

We are assured none of the newly revealed offenders will be in China. Yet three of the four US 100m sprinters selected (Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay, and Mike Rodgers) for Beijing are previous offenders. Gatlin who has actually served two suspensions, is also named at 200m along with Wallace Spearmon, yet another convicted doper.

Gatlin is by way of being a serial offender. He won the National Collegiate 100 and 200m titles and US junior 100, 200 and 110m hurdles titles in 2001, but was caught using a banned drug used to treat attention deficit disorder. Because the NCAA does not recognise the International Association of Athletics Federations he was able to ignore their suspension and retain his sprint titles the following year.

He took Olympic 100m gold, 200m bronze, and silver in the 4 x 100m in Athens 2004, and the World 100 and 200m titles the following year, the former by the greatest margin ever (0.17sec).

In 2006 he equalled Asafa Powell's world 100m record with 9.77, but that was expunged when Gatlin tested positive for the male hormone, testosterone, and he served four years of hat was originally an eight-year ban.

Powell set a word best of 9.77 in 2005 and subsequently equalled it twice before lowering the world mark to 9.74. He served six months for use of a banned stimulant, while Rogers served nine months for a similar substance. And Femi Ogunode, a Nigerian who switched allegiance to petro-dollar rich Qatar, served a two-year ban for use of Clenbuterol before returning to win gold last year in the 100 and 200m at the Asian Games, setting a continental record in the former.

Bolt, a crusading opponent of doping, holds the world 100m best at 9.58 seconds and is the most realistic challenger to the cheats this month, but has not set a world best for six years and he is only sixth equal (9.87) this year on 100m rankings now dominated by Gatlin. The American has this year's four fastest 100m times (9.78 or faster, with a best of 9.74) and four of the eight fastest (including the best two) at 200m. These performances comfortably trump those posted by Bolt before his Beijing Olympic triumphs in 2008.

Gatlin has done this at 33, a feat beyond any other sprinter in history, and has not lost at either distance for two years. There is compelling scientific evidence, thus far ignored by the World Anti-Doping Agency, that athletes who have previously doped, retain the benefits long after traces of the drugs can be detected. Until WADA endorses this research, and acts appropriately to protect clean competitors by imposing life time bans, and adopts this within its code, the world track and field body, the IAAF, is powerless to act.

Gay is second fastest ever at 100m, and sixth all-time at 200m. He won World gold at 100, 200 and 4 x110m in 2007, but in 2013 was convicted after a US Anti-Doping Agency investigation which led to his start-coach, John Drummond, being banned for eight years. Yet Gay escaped with just a 12-month suspension because he co-operated with USADA.

Gay is equal sixth fastest with Bolt this year, despite having completed his ban only in June. He is now coached by John Smith who was implicated in the BALCO doping scandal which brought down several athletes including Britain's Dwain Chambers. Smith denies any involvement but two of his athletes, sprinter Torri Edwards and hurdler Larry Wade, served suspensions.

Bolt holds a 6-2 career record in head-to-head races with Gatlin, but a pelvic injury has hampered him ths summer. He had no form to speak of, and the demons were surely invading his head before he twice recorded 9.87 in the Sainsbury Anniversary Games in London's Olympic stadium less than three weeks ago. These performances were achieved in far from perfect conditions - wet, and into a headwind of 1.2 metres per second.

That translates to 9.75 in a flat calm, and comfortably below 9.70 with a one-metre tailwind which most rivals have enjoyed.

I expect Bolt to raise his game as ever. Athletics badly needs a clean World sprint champion. It does not have to be Bolt. The IAAF needs to avoid further controversy that would attend victory by the likes of Gatlin, Gay, or Powell. With the cloud hanging around endurance running - no matter that this has relied on previously published IAAF data by media who refuse to acknowledge athletics has tested more and banned more cheats than any other sport - revival of sprint scandal would spike hopes of rehabilitation of the sport's reputation.