Merritt returns to top gear two years after kidney operation

Usain Bolt to win gold in his final competitive race is what the sentimental lobby yearned for at the world championships. Justin Gatlin blitzed that one. How about Aries Merritt to claim the 110 metres hurdles then?

Aries Merritt won Olympic gold in London in 2012. Reuters/John Sibley

It is a possibility on Monday night with the 31-year-old American racing in the final.

Five years ago in London, Merritt claimed Olympic gold and at the last world championships in Beijing, he took bronze. Days later he had a kidney transplant to cure a rare kidney disease known as collapsing focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or collapsing FSGS.

After his recuperation, Merritt failed to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. He said after the disappointment: “To be where I am is a miracle.”

A year after that setback, he is in another major final. "I performed pretty well," said Merritt after his semi-final.

"I felt a bit of tightness in my hamstring in the warm up so I just gradually warmed up to loosen it up and it did. It is all fine. I like to be cautious. I don't want to injure myself so I was conservative. But it was solid."

However for the fairy tale to unfold decorously, he will have to be in peak form. The final contains the Olympic champion Omar McLeod. The Jamaican qualified for the showdown with the fastest time of 13.10 seconds

The Frenchman Garfield Darrien was second fastest and there are other threats in the shapes of defending champion Sergey Shubenkov and Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega.

Balasz Baji, from Hungary, Shane Brathwaite, from Barbados, and the 2015 world championships silver medallist Hansle Parchment are also in the field.

“I’m aiming for the highest,” said Parchment on the eve of the race. “And gold is the highest.”

The 27-year-old Jamaican added: “Omar and I are hoping to get two medals for Jamaica. That would be a great feeling.”

Not for the sentimentally minded.