THE tradition of head-to-head conflict is the stuff of sporting legend.

Two teams, or particularly two athletes, at the top of their game: Ali v Frasier, Leonard v Duran, Laver v Rosewall, Federer v Nadal, Coe v Ovett, Nicklaus v Watson. Nations such as India v Pakistan (cricket) or Australia v New Zealand (rugby). Often these confrontations are uplifting; almost gladitorial.

When it comes to staging a rematch, if rivalry is bitter, or conflict, injury, or insult exists (or can be orchestrated), or with titles and reputations, careers and ideologies at stake, so much the better. Think Hungary versus the former USSR at water polo, or the Soviet Union v USA at basketball. Or football between England and Germany or Argentina. Occasionally, it can be disappointingly unedifying.

Since London 2012, Usain Bolt v David Rudisha over 400 metres has been touted recurrently.

With Bolt having put the 100m and 200m world records out of reach, and retained both Olympic titles, he needs to maintain motivation and appetite to cope with the developing in-house challenge of his Jamaican stablemate, Yohan Blake.

The Masai, Rudisha, was asked about racing Bolt during the medal interview after his world record to win the Olympic 800m crown. He praised the Jamaican as "the greatest sprinter I've ever seen" and added that: "maybe one time we can meet in the 400 and just compete for fun, and see who would win. It would just be fun to watch it."

Before the Olympic closing ceremony, this paper reported how promoters were talking to the pair's agents about a one-lap meeting. Kenyan media revived the notion in early March.

For all that Bolt's 2012 medal haul was greater, Rudisha's was the outstanding performance of the Games. Seb Coe set a world 800m record in 1981. Since then, only two other men have held the world best, but Rudisha, who runs his second race of the year in New York next weekend, has broken it three times in two years. In the same 32-year period, the world 100m record has been broken 12 times by seven men (thrice by Bolt, four times by Asafa Powell). While just two men have run faster than Coe since 1981, a total of 33 have run faster than the prevailing world 100m best in 1981. There is simply no comparison between the quality of the 1981 vintage 800 and 100m records.

A meeting between the two greatest athletes of the era, at a neutral distance, is something to savour, even if history tells us such head-to-heads may be fraught, or disappointingly infrequent. Coe and Ovett, for example met only three times in their prime.

One of the earliest among hyped encounters was a £200-a-side sprint in 1887, between Harry Gent and Harry Hutchens, to determine the world's fastest man. Handlers could not agree who was to take a dive, the crowd rioted, and London's Lilliebridge stadium was burned down.

The first attempt at a post-Olympic match-up was when Scotland's Wyndham Halswelle won 1908 Olympic 400m gold in London. His US rival, John Carpenter, had been disqualified, and Halswelle became the first athlete to win Olympic gold by walkover. American impresarios offered fortunes for a rematch. Halswelle declined. His ran his last public race a week after the Olympics, at Ibrox, then retired, disillusioned.

However, Johnny Hayes, the 1908 Olympic marathon winner, and Dorando Pietri, who was disqualified for having been helped over the line, staged a lucrative rematch on a 176-yard indoor track in November 1908, in New York. Despite cigar smoke, a riot, and a track invasion, Pietri won, 10 minutes faster than Hayes' Olympic winning time.

When Canada's Donovan Bailey broke the world 100m record (9.84) to win 1996 Olympic gold in Atlanta, entrepreneurs fought to match him with 200m winner Michael Johnson. A 150m race went ahead indoors. Johnson pulled up around half distance, the ultimate anti-climax in a two-horse race.

Athletics promotion has become formulaic – too many exhibition races in which the outcome is a formality. Even when a world record is harvested courtesy of pace-makers (they used to be banned) it is a poor alternative to the High Noon shoot-out in which results are unpredictable.

Bolt is a smiling, charismatically affable figure, as was the Ethiopian, Haile Gebrselassie who broke many endurance records. They are a credit to track and field but the reality of human endeavour is that records are rarely broken to order.

They are most normally delivered when the stakes and the adrenaline are highest, and when conditions – rivals and climate – are most favourable.

Rudisha recorded the fastest 400m of his career, 45.15, earlier this year. Bolt, who says he hates the distance, opens his season with a 400m, but his best of 45.28 dates back to 2007. His opener this year was 46.74.

However, this is the distance he may also have to dominate if he is to attain legend status. His sheer pace may favour him, but Rudisha has a family pedigree – his father claimed Olympic silver in Kenya's 4x400m relay in 1968. He has African rivals threatening him, and if he is to be first under 1:40 at 800m, he will need all the pace he can get.

Ultimately, if they do meet, it will come down to who trains hardest, specifically for 400m, and who wants it most – and that's an old athletics tradition.