Bolt’s showmanship, as much as the electric excitement that the 23-year-old has generated in winning Olympic and world titles at 100 and 200m in breathtaking world record times in the past 18 months, has rejuvenated global interest his sport.

That process takes a further step in 2010, when the world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is hoping that Bolt will be the lynchpin of its new Diamond League series of major events.

Top track stars, such as Bolt and his American sprint rival, Tyson Gay, have been contracted to guarantee their appearances in the 14-meeting series, which gets underway in Qatar in May.

Meeting directors are investing much hope in Bolt’s presence boosting their attendances and TV deals, as he did at last August’s IAAF World Championships in Berlin, where 80,000 sell-out crowds and estimated worldwide TV audiences of 100 million homed in whenever the Jamaican was in action.

Organisers of the Meeting Areva in Paris on July 16, for instance, this week launched a marketing campaign allowing fans who have paid up to €60 (£52) for a ticket, to purchase a second seat to see Bolt in action for just €1 (86p).

The greatest test of Bolt’s pulling power will probably come not in Europe, with its large, established audience for athletics, but when he races in the United States for the first time since his astonishing performances at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Bolt is due to race in the Diamond League meeting in New York on June 12.

"I am looking forward to returning to the Big Apple in June," Bolt said.

Bolt ran 9.72sec for 100m in the New York in May 2008 (pictured), claiming his first world record and announcing himself as “the world’s fastest man”.



Bolt said: “New York was the site of my first world record, the track is lightning fast and the fans, well, they sat through an entire thunderstorm in 2008 just to watch the 100, so I know they appreciate speed."

Bolt is also expected to return to London in August to race in the Aviva Grand Prix, another leg of the Diamond League.

The rest of Bolt's 2010 programme has yet to be announced, although it is very unlikely that he will compete in the Commonwealth Games in October.

Bolt’s absence from New Delhi will be a bitter blow to the Indian organisers, but is the consequence of the meeting being staged so late in the year.

By contrast, he is expected to compete in the majority of the 14 events that make up the Diamond League, which is replacing the Golden League series.

A key difference in the structure of the series will be the contracting of athletes to compete, guaranteeing more head-to-head racing such as Bolt versus Gay, versus Asafa Powell, Bolt’s Jamaican predecessor as 100m world record-holder.

“It's going to be good for the fans,” Gay said recently.

"There's not going to be ducking."

Bolt, Gay or Powell and six other top athletes have already committed to seven Diamond League meetings.

Between them, at least one of the three sprinters will be in each of the 14 meetings; some of the meets will feature two of the trio, and a select few events will have all three in the line-up.

Gay and Bolt will race against one another at least three times in 2010, when world records will be expected - Bolt’s and Gay’s fastest times have come when they have raced one another before, in Olympic and World Championship finals, Bolt clocking his 9.58sec and 19.19sec in an astonishing week in Berlin last year.

It all raises anticipation for the Diamond League.

"The concept is good for more showdowns,” Bolt said.

"So I am really looking forward for it. It is good for the sport and it is going to be good for us to keep competing against each other."