WITHIN 24 hours, the contrasting nature of true world-class athletes was exposed in the men's and women's finals of track and field's blue riband event - the 100 metres - on Sunday and Monday at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

In the first instance, world recordholder Asafa Powell, by his own admission, surrendered on the big stage once more when it really mattered, giving up his charge for the gold medal when he 'felt' pressure from his American rival, Tyson Gay. He eventually finished third, beaten also by his Bahamian cousin, Derrick Atkins.

Closing the deal

On the flip side, his compatriot, Veronica Campbell, pulled out all the stops to catch and beat her American rivals and win gold in the women's equivalent.

Playing catch-up all the time after a less than good start, Campbell kept champing at the bit and overtook a trio of Americans to make a golden addition to her glittering cabinet.

She is a proven big-time performer of undoubted class and has won gold medals at every stage of her development, including the junior and senior majors such as the World Youth Games, World Junior Championships, Olympics and now the World Championships.

It takes a special kind of quality to achieve, to close out the deal, at those big moments because the occasion itself brings additional pressure. It is the sort of pressure that talent alone cannot overcome - one must be mentally tough.

Various factors contribute to that most important element of success - mental toughness - including the very simple and basic things that shape one's character during one's early stages of development - the way one prepares, the way one deals with the pressures of success and failure, and how one is impacted by, and react to people who are either right around or far away, like the critics who will be one's greatest fan while one is on top, and swoop like vultures to rip one apart.

Cruel as it gets, there isn't anything wrong with it. It comes with the territory of being a star, especially in the arena of sport, which is such a great leveller.

The real challenge comes from within, the deep, deep, innermost sanctum, and is needed most when the chips are falling all around you.

Focused athlete

For instance, there was a moment last year when injury struck, Campbell was off colour, lost to Sherone Simpson at the National Championships, was not performing very well on the circuit and doubts were raised about her, a proven class act.

To her eternal credit, though, she rode the tough challenges and worked her way right back to the top of the stream to now etch her name as the only Jamaican to have won an individual gold medal at both the World Championships and Olympic Games.

No praise can be too high for this very focused and outstanding athlete who, through her post-race comments, depicted her sense of purpose and occasion, not forgetting her countrymen who suffered the ravages of Hurricane Dean.

"This one was for everybody at home," Campbell said after finish-line cameras declared her the winner in one of the closest ever races at the World Championships. "I know the hurricane did some damage and I just want to tell everybody to keep their heads up as there is always hope."

Campbell was timed in 11.01 seconds, the same as American runner-up Lauryn Williams, who had relegated her to silver at the previous World Championships. Well done, Veronica.

Reverse the trend

Then, there is the man on the flip side, Powell, who won bronze after placing third in the men's final. It is a result that would have left Powell most disappointed, as were his countrymen.

Powell, who has run the world record 9.77 seconds not once, not twice, but three times, as well as a horde of sub-10 clockings, timed 9.96 seconds in Sunday's final, beaten by a city block by Gay who was timed in 9.85 seconds. He was passed by Atkins as he noticeably slowed, as Gay surged by him, then later made a shocking revelation.

"I felt him coming on, I started to panic and that slowed me down," said Powell.

That he did is quite believable. That he admitted it is simply astonishing.

If anything, and like his world record and undoubted potential shows, ability alone is definitely not the area in which Powell is getting it wrong at the big moment. This, too, is depicted by his falterings at the World Championships two years ago and Olympics a year earlier when he was eliminated by a false start.

The next Olympics is a year away, which gives him time to reverse the trend and emerge as a true world-class athlete.