NOW the real work begins. Both for Seb Coe and for UK Athletics. Coe's first priority as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations is to underpin the crumbling credibility of anti-doping, while the challenge for UKA, after an outstanding World Championships, is to prove the London Olympics was more than just a magical home circus.
A year from now the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will already be over. Coe must avoid them being tainted by further sniping about doping. To do so, he will have to win a few battles and make some enemies. It will take a full-on assault on cheats, and national federations inclined to be soft.
If he compares the placings table, which shows the number of athletics finalists, from London 2012 with Beijing 2015, he will spot something encouraging. At the London Olympics, Russia were second in the medals table with 18 medals and 33 athletes in finals. Britain were seventh with six medals and 19 finalists. In Beijing the UK were fifth, with seven medals and again 19 finalists. Russia had sunk to 10th, with four medals and just 14 athletes in finals.
So the good news is: 1. Britain is holding its place, with an entourage of new names – five well-paced finalists who were absent from 2012, even if the gold-medal haul was the same. We won 10 in 1993, but with fewer gold.
2. Russia's doping train has been derailed. Critics would have us believe the world athletics body is soft on drugs, but the 66 reinstated cheats present in Beijing were actually a triumph for the IAAF and its biogical passport programme. The world body has to permit their return because that's what the World Anti-Doping Agency code demands.
We have long campaigned for a life ban for major doping offences and suspension of nations who are proven serial offenders. And the criminalising of possession of steroids and blood doping agents. The first two are for WADA and the Olympic movement to address, and the third is for individual governments.
Coe must move towards achieving the first two. He must also block doping cheats who earn a living by coaching and advising.
Amid the hysterical demonisation of Justin Gatlin (and the rules should be redrafted to exclude all convicted cheats) only experienced Athletics Weekly columnist Simon Turnbull took the trouble to delve into Gatlin's murky associates.
Turnbull and I shared a car in 1991, so that we could cover the European Cup final in Frankfurt and then report the rematch, at Villeneuve d’Ascq, the following day, between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson. The Canadian had returned after his Seoul Olympic disgrace and was being paid £100,000 to race Lewis again.
The script surrounding the Belgian event was an early edition of the good-v-evil scenario in which Usain Bolt and Gatlin were found. And lo, Dennis Mitchell (a distant fifth in the 1988 final) upstaged both of them, running a wind-assisted 10.09. Lewis (paid £175,000) was second in 10.20 with Johnson eighth in 10.46.
Older readers may recall Mitchell subsequently testing positive for testoterone. He "explained" this was due to having drunk five bottles of beer and matrimonial relations with his wife "at least four times" the night before the test. "It was the lady’s birthday," he said. "She deserved a treat."
And guess what? USA Track and field believed him. The IAAF, however, did not, and he served a two-year suspension.
Mitchell was obliged to testify that his coach, Trevor Graham, had injected him with human growth hormone and advised him to take steroids. The self-same Graham coached Gatlin when his explanation for a steroid conviction might have come straight from the beers-and-sex manual: a disgruntled therapist had massaged a steroid cream into his buttocks.
Graham, incidentally, also coached serial cheat Marion Jones and the unfrocked world 100m record holder Tim Montgomery. Graham was convicted of perjury but despite being the whistle-blower on the BALCO scandal, he became the first person banned from continuing to coach.
And Mitchell? He married Olympic hurdles finalist Damu Cherry who often assists his coaching. She was also banned for using steroids. Now 49, he is based at the US National Training Centre in Florida. He was in Beijing as head relay coach for USA Track and field. And coaching Gatlin.
This is the incestuous, tangled world of doping and coaching which Coe must unravel. One where national bodies ignore and condone convicted cheats continuing to coach. The US is not alone. Former Olympic and World 100m champion Linford Christie, banned for being 100 times the legal limit for nandrolone, coached athletes in the GB team in Beijing. There are countless examples from other countries.
I noted Richard Kilty's outburst after the GB 4x100m quartet failed to get the baton round, and recall remarks he made last year about athletes from rival coaching groups not getting on. That still appears the case. If so, head UK coach Neil Black must bang heads together, stop juggling the running order, and order more baton practice. Recurring failure to get the baton round in major championships is an embarrassment, and given the resources spent, a scandal.
And magical, magnificent Mo Farah? For me, he does need a world record to be the complete deal. After all, Alf Shrubb set 28 world records, 12 of them at Ibrox in 1903 and '04. Seven of these world marks lasted for more than 20 years, and a further six survived for more than 20 years as UK records. One was still the British best in 1953. Shrubb's world best at six miles eventually fell after 25 years to multiple Olympic champion Paavo Nurmi, while several more surpassed the winning performances of other Olympic champions. Shrubb, however, never competed in the Games because he received payments to cover expenses.
The notion that this should have disqualified athletes seems quaint now. If Coe fails to conquer doping, drug-free athletes may also become a thing of the past.
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