Bolt tells dopers: Clean up your act for the sake of the sport
Usain Bolt has warned dopers they risk killing athletics and urged them to clean up their act for the sake of the sport.
The 30-year-old pleaded for clean sport ahead of his final individual 100m race at the World Championships this weekend.
Of the 30-best 100m times, 21 were achieved by athletes who have served drugs bans - with the other nine all coming from Bolt during a nine-year career which has earned eight Olympic gold medals and 11 world titles.
Athletics has been under a cloud, with the Russian federation banned for systemic doping since November 2015.
Bolt, who holds the world records in the 100m and 200m, insisted dopers are endangering the future of athletics.
"Hopefully, athletes will see what's going on and understand that if they don't stop what they're doing, the sport will die," said Bolt at a press conference in London yesterday morning (Singapore time).
"Hopefully understand what the sport is going through and what they need to do as athletes to help the sport move forward.
"Personally, I think it was there (rock bottom).
"After the scandal on Russia, I don't think it gets any worse than that. It's on its way back up now. No way but up you can go and forward.
"You can't be happy about doping at all, it's not good for the sport. But, over the years, we're doing a better job, it's getting clean and we're catching up to a lot of athletes.
"There's an understanding that, listen, if you cheat you will get caught. Over time, the sport will get better.
"I said a couple of years ago it had to get really bad, when there's nowhere else to go but up. The only way track and field has left to go is up.
"We're going to go in the right direction and I'm happy about that situation.
"Doping is always a bad thing and it's never pleasant because you put in the hard work and the sport starts going forward and then you have other guys bringing it back, it's hard.
"It's going in the right direction so hopefully it will continue in that direction." - PA SPORT
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