India, Oct. 11 -- Track is sport in its purest form. No rotating orb to smash through a net like in football; no mastering the tools like in golf; no hurling projectiles at each other like in tennis or badminton; no judging the swing through the air or deviation off the surface like in cricket; no harnessing the machine like in Formula 1; no inherent violence like in boxing or wrestling. Instead, it's one pair of legs simply striving to outrun another over a designated distance in a scintillating battle of strength, grit and technique.

Within track, the sprints are the most unadulterated expression of human excellence.

They don't need guile like the middle-distance races do; nor do they call for the fine balance between pace and enduran...