AS Usain Bolt prepares for the new athletics season by running a 400m in Jamaica on Saturday, it once again raises the question: can Bolt challenge Michael Johnson's ten year record?
The 23 year-old star has dominated the sprint events since rising to prominence in 2002 and has gone on to break both the 100m and 200m world records as well accumulating a series of world and Olympic medals.
It's not uncommon for the Jamaica star to run the longer distance at the beginning of the season as he looks to build his fitness before reverting back to the shorter events, but many commentators and former athletes have raised the possibility of Trelawney-born runner adopting the event regularly.
Johnson has gone on record as saying that Bolt's speed and stride is a frightening combination but has questioned Bolt's endurance, an element that is crucial in order make a success of the event.
Bert Cameron, the first 400m world champion, believes that Bolt will eventually turn his attentions to the discipline and believes he will be able to add a third world record to his collection and clock a time under 43 seconds.
“I would advise people, don't say that he can't do something, because when you say that he can't, that's when he will. He'll prove you wrong. That would be my advice to his opponents as well,” said Cameron.
Bolt burst onto the scene at the 2002 World Junior Championships where he claimed three gold medals including the individual 200m, becoming the youngest winner of the event, and helping himself to the IAAF Rising Star Award.
The following year Bolt equalled Roy Martin's World Junior Record of 20.13 in the 200m and gained widespread media coverage as many tipped him as a successor to Johnson, famed for his 200m and 400m exploits.
Bolt has previously shied away from claims that he is interested in claiming Johnson's record and has stated a dislike for the event which is a frightening thought for someone who ran the 400m in 45.35sec as a 16 year old back in 2003.
However, his stance does seem to be softening and with the lack of a major athletics event in 2010, this year would be as good as any for athletics’ premier star to add another major accomplishment to his already reputable C.V.
“The training for the 400m is so much harder, but I'm thinking about it. There are no major championships in 2010 so I could go for the 400m record that year,” Bolt told the BBC last year.
Clyde Hart, the legendary track coach and the man who guided Johnson to his 400m record back in 1999, also believes that Bolt has the necessary ingredients to challenge the record marker but adds that Bolt has to be prepared for a challenging training programme.
“I think if he (Bolt) had the right programme, did everything you have to do to be successful and with his speed he could run under 43 seconds, but whether he could ever do that is a whole different ball game,” he said.
Bolt has often been portrayed as someone who dislikes training and is more interested in frequenting his hometown nightclubs than putting in the hard graft on the field, which is something that has been strongly denied by his coaches and the people closest to him.
It cannot be denied that Bolt has the potential to affirm himself in the 400m and such a move will probably happen at some point in the future.
Should such a move prove fruitful, the Jamaica star will have undoubtedly fulfilled his potential and will go down in history as one of the most successful athletes of all time if he has not done that already.