Amidst some great sporting performances in the last week in this brief period of the year in which summer and winter sporting seasons coincide, my attention was drawn by two freak - or somewhat freak - collisions between two sprinters and vehicles designed to record the action.

It has been a week of firsts in Kazakhstan’s sporting history.

Two years ago, Russia concluded the Moscow International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in second place behind the United States, but with more golds - seven to six. Two years on, as the 15th World Championships here move into their final day, late golds by Sergey Shubenkov in the 110 metres hurdles and Mariya Kuchina in the women’s high jump have rescued the Russian cause from humiliation.

No, Usain Bolt is not the saviour of athletics: he has been doing what he does since 2008, if not earlier, and the sport is at a much lower ebb now than it was then.

The event officially opened here last Saturday by the Chinese President was not just the International Association of Athletics Federations’ World Championships – it was self-styled as the Green Championships, with concern for the environment being one of its key elements.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not often silent for three minutes.

Agents are the bane of sport.

There are more of them around now than the KGB, MI5 and CIA have amassed in all the years they have been in existence. And they are taking over. 

I had an exciting, if rather terrifying experience, today when called in to do a television interview on CNN’s World Sport programme about the weekend’s 100 metres showdown between Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin.

It has been another of those weeks in sport when doping is the only real story.

As we, the summoned and assembled media, awaited the start of Usain Bolt’s press conference in a very large room inside the Nuo Hotel - a start which was by now delayed more than half an hour - it became apparent that the reggae which had been thumping and bumping away in the foreground during that time was on a loop.

Bob Marley’s One Love did its thing once again. Meanwhile the long black leather sofa in front of us remained untenanted, flanked by dotted red and green spotlights trained on the crystalline ceiling.

Upon arrival at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham, I was greeted by the sight of British Canoeing’s Nikki Paterson making the final preparations to her kayak before heading onto the two kilometres lake for one of her final training sessions ahead of the Para-canoe World Championships in Milan.

Good luck to Sebastian Coe, a true friend - and passionate fan - of athletics as he goes toe-to-toe with another Olympic legend, ex-pole vault maestro Sergey Bubka, for the right to rule the turbulent world of track and field.

Having just returned from a 10-day visit to Rio de Janeiro I have to admit I was impressed with progress ahead of next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Much has been made of the appointment of a veteran of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Salt Lake City crisis to chair the new body charged with drafting a package of reform proposals far-reaching enough to salvage FIFA’s battered reputation.