Good Conquers Evil: Usain Bolt Narrowly Outruns Justin Gatlin for 100M Title

The script had been written and submitted. One man, a likable freak of nature and a worldwide celebrity who is beloved just as much for his never-seen-before speed as his just-as-rare antics.

The other, a pariah even within his own country and sport for his checkered past and refusal to fall on his sword. Our villain remains uncomfortably intense and often clinical in his destruction of his opponents.

Like all great sagas, the hero would face adversity before coming out on top on the biggest stage of all. This was the year the great Usain Bolt, a mortal after all who was limited by injuries, would finally take a backseat to Justin Gatlin.

It would happen just before his biggest test of all at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where he could close out his illustrious Olympic career.

While to track junkies the World Championship are on close footing to the Olympic Games, the stakes and stage are no doubt smaller. A defeat for Bolt here would be the necessary drama to set up the men’s 100-meter competition in Rio as the crown jewel of the Games.

Leave it to the most unique and talented sprinter of our time to cross out parts of that script in the narrowest fashion imaginable.

Back at Beijing's Bird’s Nest, the site of his emergence as the world’s greatest sprint star, Bolt used all of his championship mettle to turn Gatlin aside.

While Gatlin appeared to have a slight edge early on and in the middle of the 100-meter race, Bolt calmly maintained his push. Around 70 meters in, the two men were truly stretched psychologically and physically. They were on near-even terms, but Bolt was, historically speaking, at the point where he makes mincemeat of his competitors.

Bolt kept his cool as Gatlin subtly flailed away and lost some of his form. Speaking to the BBC, Sprint legend Michael Johnson chalked it down to Gatlin feeling Bolt’s presence (h/t Nick Zaccardi of NBCSports.com).

Whatever it was, the confidence that resulted in a rash of 9.7 clockings was nowhere to be found as he faltered just enough. The difference in composure was enough to create the minuscule margin.

This wasn’t the same Bolt who had obliterated his competition from 2008 to 2013. Whether it be age or injury, he came into Sunday's World Championships without the capability of running the ‘video game times’ (as Ato Boldon would say) that once made these events a mere exhibition.

Still, if that knowledge bothered him or made him insecure, you would not have noticed it in the run-up. He cheekily mocked the pre-race piano introduction, which didn’t seem to quite capture the magnitude of the event. He joked and posed for the cameras during his intro and evoked his trademark looseness and confidence.

Meanwhile, Gatlin was, as usual, the polar opposite to the loquacious Bolt. He was business-like in eviscerating his competitors in each round. He put down times that placed the target firmly on his back. As the cameras panned to him at the start, he intensely stared them down for a long moment before lapsing into his usual pre-race routine.

A sport in crisis

In the end, most supporters of the sport will have gotten what they wanted. It is a bizarre situation when the newly elected head of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Sebastian Coe, openly reveals his strong preference for Bolt as a winner.

Track and field is in the midst of yet another doping crisis, as reports surface suggesting corruption and widespread doping. Fair or not, if the public had to select a poster-boy for that, many would look right to Gatlin.

He served a stiff, four-year ban that was perhaps unjust based on the murkiness of his first alleged offense. Still, he never admitted to any intentional wrongdoing, which most cannot stand for. He came back to win after many years without fanfare or an apology tour. There is a reason the Guardian theorized he’d be the "least popular 100m world champion ever."

He served his time, but the distrust of the sport remains high enough for many to assume he still is doping or reaping the benefits of past performance-enhancing drug use.

Now, he will have to regroup after missing perhaps his best opportunity to knock off Bolt. For a man, who overcame four years away from the sport and some lean years in his return, it’d be folly to doubt him to try.

Still, Bolt will come away from this win with even more confidence and motivation to close out his career without a blemish. He can hope to have more luck with injuries after a nightmarish run of them this season.

In Rio, barring a similar rash of injuries, Bolt will return to being the prohibitive favorite. If anything, this final would stop us from assuming that the lead-up will clearly predict the Olympics final.

Anything can happen. The villainous Gatlin could unseat Bolt and begin the end of his career with the opposite of a storybook ending.

Still, the more times he seemingly pulls out victories out of the abyss, the more you can’t help but feel Bolt is writing the script. In his version, the hero will never stop prevailing.