HANDS up all those who punched the air with delight when Usain Bolt beat Justin Gatlin in Beijing on Sunday.

I don’t mind admitting that I did.

It was made all the more sweet because I genuinely believed that Gatlin, based on his performances in the lead-up to Beijing, would win, and the thought of knowing a twice-banned athlete was world champion would not have sat easy.

When I watch sport, I want to watch the best competing at the peak of their natural powers, not someone trying to gain an unnatural advantage through doping.

Which is what Gatlin has been found guilty of doing not once but twice. To get one ban is careless at best, twice is unforgiveable.

The American represents everything that is wrong with athletics.

He may have been eligible to compete at the world championships having served his time but that’s only because the system is flawed.

Gatlin, and many others like him, is a disgrace to the sport and the governing body should be punishing offenders with life bans to send out a clear message that cheating has no place in sport. Why offer second or third chances?

Three others who lined up alongside side Gatlin in the Bird’s Nest, fellow Americans Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers and Jamaican Asafa Powell, have also served bans for similar offences in recent years.

For Bolt, who has never failed a test in his career, to leave them all trailing, no matter how small the margin, is hugely significant. That he wasn’t at his best following a season disrupted by injury makes it all the more impressive. It wasn’t just the Jamaican’s reputation on the line, it was the whole sport.

Coming just days after Lord Coe took over as the president of the IAAF, the timing couldn’t have been better. Now we have the right man at the helm and the finest sprinter of all-time leading the way in the war on the cheats.

There is a long road ahead to clean up the sport but what happened in Beijing could just turn out to be a new dawn for athletics.