Cape Town - Highlights from the past decade in athletics as Jamaica's Usain Bolt took the art of sprinting to a whole new level.

Athlete of the decade:

If ever a sport needed a new hero it was athletics in the opening years of the 21st century and, in the most spectacular surroundings possible, Usain Bolt came roaring to the rescue.

At the Beijing Olympics the Jamaican danced across the finish line to take 100 metres gold in world-record time and days later showed steely determination to win the 200m and beat Michael Johnson's "untouchable" 1996 mark. He added gold in the 4x400m relay, with a third world record.

A year later Bolt, still smiling, scooped all three golds again in the world championships with crushing world records in the 100m and 200m.

Defining moment:

Marion Jones was the golden girl and smiling face of the 2000 Olympics but instead came to represent all that was rotten in the sport when she was sentenced to six months in jail on January 11, 2008, for lying about using performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones won the 100m and 200m and ran an astonishing third leg to help the United States win the 4x400m relay in Sydney, as well as taking two bronzes, but, with former partners including convicted dopers CJ Hunter and Tim Montgomery, it was with disappointment but little surprise that the athletics world greeted the news that she too had cheated her way to glory.

Race of the decade:

Virtually any of Bolt's championship performances could take this accolade but for sheer dizzying quality his 2009 world championship 100 metres victory in an eye-popping 9.58 seconds is difficult to surpass.

Tyson Gay ran 9.71, a time bettered only by Bolt's Beijing world record, but the American was a distant second as Bolt's astonishing time launched a thousand "how fast can man go?" features.

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