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New kids on the athletics block take over from `oldsters'

Out with the old and in with the new and athletics is all the better for it with the future looking far rosier than before the Olympics started.

The older generation that has dominated athletics for a decade and more is being shifted out as event after event has gone to the new kids on the block, and it is not just a case of it being solely Americans leading the charge.

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang's stunning victory in the 110 meters hurdles on Friday when he equalled the world record and beat 2000 Olympic champion Anier Garcia of Cuba was just the latest example.

It is questionable whether even the great Allen Johnson -- who crashed out in the second round -- would have been able to stay with Liu but their next clash should be a mouthwatering sight.

His Chinese team-mate Xing Qiang may have been a more surprising winner given she hadn't been heard of by the Ethiopians, but the manner of the 20-year-old book loving runner's victory suggested that the normally dominant Africans could also be seeing a changing of the guard.

Sea change

The Americans, though, have seen the greatest sea change especially in the sprints as the likes of 20-year-old Lauryn Williams and 18-year-old Allyson Felix have burst through ready to fill the gap left by Marion Jones, and the drugs banned duo of Kelli White and Torri Edwards.

There was something symbolic in the image of Jones desperately trying to hand the baton onto Williams' in the 4x100m relay on Friday night and it not succeeding.

Because as Felix put it sharply earlier in the week they don't want to have any advice from the previous generation that has been tarnished by drugs scandals and in Jones' case allegations. Essentially they want to start from a clean sheet.

"We are happy to be a new wave here. We want people to see positive things about track and field," said Felix, who ended up with silver in the 200m behind a 22-year-old Jamaican Veronica Campbell.

Only Maurice Greene remains of the male generation that ironically were on top of the world when the world championships were held here in 1997 and Athens was competing to win the right to host the Olympics.

Old `GOAT'

However bravely he fought to take the bronze in the 100m, the Kansas Comet is on the downward spiral and his tattoo of "GOAT" the Greatest of All Time looked out of place as the 22-year-old Justin Gatlin exposed him so brutally in the 100m final.

Greene, though, like the prizefighting type he is, refuses to accept that the king is dead long live the King.

"The young guys are coming but I am not done yet," he said.

"I am still coming back. I am still the greatest in the world. When you look at the things that I've achieved I'm making it difficult for the next person to come along and do what I did."

Despite Greene's defiance, Gatlin insisted that his compatriot's era was over.

"Maurice is one of the greatest competitors in the world," said the well-spoken Gatlin.

"However this is a new era, the young guys are coming."

Throw in 20-year-old Jeremy Wariner's thumping victory in the 400m as he took up the baton handed on from his mentor and 2000 champion Michael Johnson and the future of athletics does indeed take on a golden hue.

For the moment it is like an early morning sun but with the clouds swept away of the older tarnished generation it is set to blossom into a full afternoon glare in four years time in Beijing.
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