by Our Sports Desk
SELDOM, if ever, has the spectre of doping hung so heavily over a major athletics event as it will do at the World Championships in Beijing.

The sport is in crisis, brought to its knees by allegation upon fresh allegation.

The World Championships, the sport’s biggest stage outside the Olympics, get under way on Saturday week with its very credibility under attack.

The confidence of many fans has drained away, their trust in performances at rock bottom and their enthusiasm eroded by repeated drug scandals.

Scepticism rather than wonderment is now the overriding emotion to greet record-breaking feats on the track and in the field.

But, with accusations of mass doping and cover-ups at the very top of the sport, there can be little surprise fans are being turned off in their droves.

This year saw first allegations from German broadcaster ARD that banned drugs and cover-ups were rife in Russian athletics; then a BBC Panorama investigation claimed Alberto Salazar, the head coach at the prestigious Nike Oregon Portland in Portland and Mo Farah’s coach, had violated anti-doping rules; and finally ARD and the Sunday Times, who obtained leaked data relating to 12,000 blood tests conducted on more than 5,000 athletes, claimed, based on analysis by two leading anti-doping experts, that world governing body the IAAF had turned a blind eye to suspicious blood test results from hundreds of athletes, including major medal winners.

And you thought cycling had it bad.

There have been ferocious rebuttals. Salazar issued a 12,000-word open letter to deny the allegations against him, while the under-fire IAAF has come out fighting, launching an in-depth defence of its drug-testing record. This week it announced it had suspended 28 athletes over historic doping offences — good news, sort of.

The fact is, though, that, proven or not, founded or not, every new allegation is a body blow to the credibility of the sport.

Clean athletes have been having their sport tainted by cheats for a long time, but it is the sheer scale of the recent claims which do most damage to its already fragile reputation.

The new IAAF president — either Lord Coe or Sergey Bubka will be voted in on Wednesday — faces one hell of a challenge.

On top of all this, the favourite for the men’s 100 metres in Beijing, the glamour event, is a two-time drug cheat.
Justin Gatlin, at 33 undiminished and unrepentant, is a divisive figure.

For many within the sport, never has victory for Usain Bolt over his rival been more important. Gatlin also dominates the 200m world rankings and could end up leaving China with three gold medals, if the 4x100m relay goes the way of the United States team.

Bolt, the six-time Olympic gold medallist, blew away fears about his fitness with successive runs of 9.87 seconds in London last month, but Gatlin has clocked 9.74secs, twice 9.75s and 9.78 this summer. It seems safe to assume he will raise his game in Beijing. Bolt has not run that quick since London 2012.

The Jamaican may be a self-styled legend, but the tag of the sport’s “saviour” is one that has been foisted upon him.
“A lot of people have been saying that, but I think it’s not just down to me,” he said when asked about it recently.
“I just do my best, I try to run fast, I do it clean.”

These are welcome words, especially given the sport’s current condition.

And there is more good news in the strength of Great Britain’s team, a year out from the Rio Olympics, which certainly looks well capable of beating the medal haul of six from two years ago in Moscow.

Star names like Farah (5,000m and 10,000m), Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon) and Greg Rutherford (long jump) look set for medals.

Farah, who has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but, amid the allegations engulfing his coach, has defied convention to allow his blood test data to be made public to prove his innocence, will be out to take his tally of global titles to seven with another double triumph.

The friendly rivalry between Ennis-Hill, back after the birth of her son Reggie last summer, and Johnson-Thompson promises to be one of the most exciting in British sport, while Rutherford is looking to complete a clean sweep of major titles, with World Championship gold the only one missing from his collection.
There is medal potential too in the likes of Tiffany Porter (100m hurdles), Shara Proctor (long jump), Laura Muir (1500m) and of course Christine Ohuruogu (400m), as well as in the relays.
The athletes can only hope it is their performances, and not scandal off the track, which get tongues wagging in Beijing.