THE clash is nigh, as Usain Bolt prepares to meet in-form Justin Gatlin today in the final of the much-awaited and anticipated 100m at the World Championships currently taking place in Beijing, China.

Following yesterday’s running of the heats, Gatlin ran the fastest time while Bolt looked easy in his race. Since the heats, which took place early yesterday morning (Jamaica time), the world’s press and social media have been abuzz with reports and comments on the outcome of the race. The Sunday Observer shares some of those comments.

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

Usain Bolt bids to retain his title as the world’s fastest man on day two of the World Athletics Championships today.

The Jamaican easily qualified for the 100 metres semi-final along with American rival Justin Gatlin, who set the fastest qualifying time of 9.83sec.

Bolt goes mano a mano against Gatlin in a most anticipated race.

But all eyes will be on Jamaican superstar Bolt, who faces a serious challenge from American Gatlin in a blockbuster clash in Beijing, where Bolt famously blasted to triple gold at the 2008 Olympics.

Bolt’s eye-popping world record of 9.58, set in Berlin in 2009, would appear safe but with allegations of widespread doping engulfing the sport, his showdown with Gatlin is being seen by some as a symbolic struggle of light versus dark.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Usain Bolt lowered his 6-foot-5″ frame into a too-small seat in the warm-up room and watched on TV as his main rival coasted across the line in a first-round heat.

Justin Gatlin finished that heat in 9.83 seconds — a faster 100-metre time than Bolt has run this year.

Early rounds aren’t supposed to mean much at big meets like this one, but after Bolt more or less lumbered to his own qualifying time of 9.96 in the evening’s final heat, he said it was hard to ignore the scoreboard.

“Just watching the guys, and how fast they were running, it was pretty quick,” Bolt said. “I didn’t worry. I was just trying to execute and save as much as possible.”

A good strategy on any opening night, though on this one, something felt different. Maybe it’s because Gatlin, his four-year doping ban long behind him, has been dominating the sprints in 2014 and ’15, while Bolt has been on the sideline with a variety of ailments that have limited his race appearances.

Eight of the 24 runners who qualified for Sunday’s semi-finals ran under 10 seconds. At the last two world championships and the London Olympics, there were a combined four sub-10 times in Round 1. This was the first time Bolt had run under 10 in the first round of worlds, but the Jamaican simply blended into the group.

“You have to earn it,” said American sprinter Mike Rodgers, who raced one lane to the right of Bolt and finished .01 behind him. “If you want to be a champ, you have to earn it.”

Bolt’s jump out of the block was typically mediocre, ranked second-slowest in his heat. He was bobbling between the lines in Lane 6 for most of the first 40 metres, before accelerating from the back to the lead over the next 40. Both he and Rodgers coasted home, though when Bolt looked to his right to check him as they approached the finish, he probably saw more of the 5-foot-7″ American than he expected.

“It wasn’t as great as I wanted it to be,” Bolt said. “But I wasn’t expecting to be great.”

Bolt left the Bird’s Nest to prepare for a return in less than 24 hours, and everyone is expecting him to be better.

“He did the same thing in 2012,” Gatlin said. “He kind of ran slow in the first round (10.09), picked it up in semis (9.87) and crushed it in finals (9.63). We all just have to sit there and wait and see exactly what he’s going to do.”

After the action in the preliminaries, Gatlin became the 100-metre favourite, at 4-5, in several sports books in Britain, the country where the Bolt-Gatlin showdown is being labelled as “Good vs Evil” — a race between the sport’s smiling face and a twice-convicted doper.

Favourite or no, Gatlin insisted he wasn’t thinking about posting a time on Day 1.

“My mind was blank,” the 2004 Olympic 100-metre champion said.

If so, it makes that 9.83 that much more impressive. (Officially, it was wind-aided, but only by .1 metre per second over the limit for a legal time.)

But it’s foolish to count out Bolt. Except for the time he false-started in the 100 at the 2011 worlds, he has won every sprint at an Olympics or world championships since 2008.

And he really likes Beijing.

He already owned the 100-metre world record when he came to the Bird’s Nest in 2008, but lowered it to 9.69. He dropped it to 9.58 a year later at the Worlds in Berlin.

Asked if he was in “9.6 shape” for the final, Bolt nodded yes.

“I think I’m in that shape,” he said. “I’m ready to go. It’s all about execution and power. I’ll be ready when it comes tomorrow (today).”