A seven-year absence is long enough to make most rust into oblivion. But not this all-time great from Cuba. He quit athletics on a high — having won a silver at the Sydney Olympics after the reversal of a drug suspension for cocaine use — in 2000, but even today Javier Sotomayor can give the best of his ilk a run for their money. Confidence personified and bustling with athleticism, the world-record holder in high jump is truly a rare species.

Sotomayor is on his first-ever trip to the country — he is a brand ambassador for Vodafone Delhi Half Marathon — after a few aborted attempts before. “I always wanted to visit India, but couldn’t because of training and other commitments. This time I accepted the invitation and here I am,” was how he opened up during a tete-e-tete with the media.

Apologising time and again for “my bad English,” he took the help of Hugh Jones, who acted the interpreter, and answered questions of varying interests — from Cuban sports to American domination in athletics to Asians and others now making considerable inroads into the so-called “US athletics bastion.” He also touched upon dope-related issues and how stricter dope measures have pulled the Americans down.