Justin Gatlin’s nephew posed an adorable challenge to Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt’s kids after training with his legendary uncle.
Gatlin, who won 12 world and five Olympic medals during his career, went up against Powell and Bolt on many occasions but now it appears that the baton has been passed down.
GettyJustin Gatlin and Usain Bolt were long time track rivals during their legendary track careers[/caption]
The trio are now enjoying retirement but that hasn’t stopped a new rivalry forming between their family members with Gatlin passing down his wealth of experience to his nephew.
In an Instagram video, the youngster can be seen crossing obstacles and lifting weights in their garden.
He is then heard saying: “Uncle Asafa and uncle Usain, I want to race your kids.”
Gatlin reacted brilliantly to his nephew’s proposition by captioning: “Uncle @asafasub10king Uncle @usainbolt definitely past 24hr response time but we gearing up #nephews lol.”
It remains to be seen whether a race between the three kids is on the horizon but the idea of the three sprint kings in attendance would most certainly make it box office viewing.
Gatlin’s encounters with Powell and Bolt were the headline races of a generation. The American achieved a career best time of 9.74sec in the 100m.
He beat Powell in the 100m at both the 2012 Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix and 2015 Lausanne Diamond League.
Gatlin also got the better of Bolt in the 100m at the 2017 World Championships in what proved to be the final race of the Jamaican’s legendary career.
This, after Gatlin took advantage of an injury to Bolt to win gold at the 2004 Olympics.
Since retiring from athletics on his 40th birthday, Gatlin has regularly teamed up on podcasts with his former competitors to reminisce over their heydays.
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In a recent episode of ‘The Fix’ podcast, Bolt told listeners that he considers Gatlin his ‘greatest rival’ due to the pair having competed against each other in most of their career races.
Bolt said: “For me, Justin, because I think we competed over a longer span, for a while. For a span, now, like five years. With everybody, it was like two years, one year. So, that was the thing.
“He is a master, so I give that off to Justin, and Justin Gatlin is a true competitor. He’s somebody that you have to respect when it comes to competing and working. And the sport needs to evolve, it has to.”
Meanwhile, on an episode of the ‘Ready Set Go’ podcast the pair categorically rebuffed the notion that the 2024 100m final in Paris was superior to the London 2012 final which saw Gatlin, Bolt and Powell go head-to-head.
“Do you guys really think the last 100m was the best one?,” Bolt asked Gatlin and former Bahamian sprinter Rodney Green. “I’m curious, do you really think so after what we performed in 2012?”
Green responded: “Asafa throws the average off because he’s injured. If he doesn’t finish he’s okay but because he finishes in such a slow time because of his injury, it throws the average of that race off.”
“The line up in that race was unheard of,” Gatlin responded. “When you look at any other sport and the greatest of those sports NBA, NFL – they’re in generations. [Michael] Jordan didn’t play with LeBron [James] and Kobe [Bryant] played some with LeBron.
“But the fact of our line up is we were all in the same generation and we lined up at the same time. You won’t ever replicate that race ever again in life. The top five men in history were in that race.”
