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Great athletics is about to return to Berlin after 9 years: the fever grows. I was there for the 2009 World Championships: it was my second sport event in Berlin, after the one I talked about last time.
The great protagonists of those World Championships were two: Bolt and the mascot Berlino. Bolt started with the great achievement of 100. I saw the final from behind, towards the end of the second bend: Bolt seems to start badly even compared to his standards, but after 40 meters is already in the lead, then is launches and creates a vacuum behind him, to close with a strong gap on Gay, huge on everyone else. At the end we look at the time: 9.58! I leave the stadium completely shocked: when I call my wife, she asks me what happened to me. That day we had the confirmation that Bolt was what Dante would have called "something come from heaven on earth to show a miracle" and Gay one of the most unlucky champions in history for meeting a greater one on his way, like Gimondi with Merckx and Hackett with Thorpe.
The day after he was back with the heats of 200. I go to the stadium with my family: we get late due to the queue and we fear to miss him if he were in the first heat. Fortunately he was in the sixth. In the final, 19.19 was almost a disappointment: someone thought that he would run below 19, I assumed at least well below 19.16, twice the time of 100. And say that only a year and a half before I wondered if I would ever see M. Johnson's 19.32 beaten.
The bear Berlino was the other great protagonist. Inside the stadium, the gag with the women's 400hs gold medal was his most famous: he put her on his shoulders, but crashed into the car that was taking the obstacles away. Also Bolt in warm-up showed off a t-shirt with the words "Ich bin ein Berlino". Outside the stadium, Berlino was very helpful, especially with children, including mine (at that time aged respectively some more than and some less of 4), who met him in a field where the children could try the different events of athletics, including pole vault. His puppet was snapped up: Tuesday was already sold out. Luckily I had bought it on the first Sunday. We found people who, having failed to get one, asked for a picture with it. Even eptathlete Dobrynska wrote on the IAAF website that her only regret, in a WCH where she had won the gold, was not being able to get the puppet Berlino!
My World Championships had started with a rush, as soon as we arrived, to go to watch the women's race walk, which took place on Unter den Linden, inaugurating a tradition of having it away from the stadium, which since then became the rule (the only exception I remember Moscow 2013). Rigaudo never challenged for the medals, closing 9th, I think.. It was the first of a series of disappointments for Italy: there was then the 50 km., with Schwazer that at some point loses ground and later quits (and De Luca who, in comeback, arrives 8th), Di Martino down from the podium in HJ, but the biggest regret was for Vizzoni, even if he was not a podium candidate at the beginning. 1st throw: very long, according to some good for the podium, definitely widely for the final, but just out of sector. 2nd throw in the cage. 3rd throw: very controlled, almost in slow motion, ends up 2 cm from 8th place. In the end, Italy's balance was considered a failure because we remained without medals for the first time in the history of the WCH and for the first time since 1956 counting also the Olympics. If we look at the standings today, it turns out that we have won two: if we had known then, the balance would not have been so negative, also considering the placements.
I had met a group of Italians and I commented the races with them: one told of a tormented love story between two athletes, which had influenced the woman's performance. When Marta Dominugez won the 3000sc, she commented "We hope she is not from the Fuentes school". As we know, that hope was disappointed.
Among the other races, I remember women's 800, with Cusma who illuded usin the semifinals and then collapsed in the final and Semenya's revelation of the Semenya, in her first race out of Africa. Then the two PV races: among the women Isimbayeva enters the competition ver high (at 4.70, I think), raises after the first miss and ends up wth zero, among the men Hooker also enters very late (he had physical problems), but he does it and wins. Gibilisco at 5.75 takes the bar down in falling back, while I was undecided whether to cher in English or in German, and closes 7th (he would still have come 4th).
On the way to the stadium, from the underground on, there were many original writings of 1936: they made me think of those who went to see those Olympics, unaware of the carnage that awaited them shortly thereafter. In the stadium venue there was also the Olympic swimming pool, always crowded, I imagine by the event volunteers, since it was not open to the public. Also crowded the 10-meter platform, even with two divers at a time. 8 years later I would swim in an Olympic pool myself.
And in less than a week I'll be there again .
Great athletics is about to return to Berlin after 9 years: the fever grows. I was there for the 2009 World Championships: it was my second sport event in Berlin, after the one I talked about last time.
The great protagonists of those World Championships were two: Bolt and the mascot Berlino. Bolt started with the great achievement of 100. I saw the final from behind, towards the end of the second bend: Bolt seems to start badly even compared to his standards, but after 40 meters is already in the lead, then is launches and creates a vacuum behind him, to close with a strong gap on Gay, huge on everyone else. At the end we look at the time: 9.58! I leave the stadium completely shocked: when I call my wife, she asks me what happened to me. That day we had the confirmation that Bolt was what Dante would have called "something come from heaven on earth to show a miracle" and Gay one of the most unlucky champions in history for meeting a greater one on his way, like Gimondi with Merckx and Hackett with Thorpe.
The day after he was back with the heats of 200. I go to the stadium with my family: we get late due to the queue and we fear to miss him if he were in the first heat. Fortunately he was in the sixth. In the final, 19.19 was almost a disappointment: someone thought that he would run below 19, I assumed at least well below 19.16, twice the time of 100. And say that only a year and a half before I wondered if I would ever see M. Johnson's 19.32 beaten.
The bear Berlino was the other great protagonist. Inside the stadium, the gag with the women's 400hs gold medal was his most famous: he put her on his shoulders, but crashed into the car that was taking the obstacles away. Also Bolt in warm-up showed off a t-shirt with the words "Ich bin ein Berlino". Outside the stadium, Berlino was very helpful, especially with children, including mine (at that time aged respectively some more than and some less of 4), who met him in a field where the children could try the different events of athletics, including pole vault. His puppet was snapped up: Tuesday was already sold out. Luckily I had bought it on the first Sunday. We found people who, having failed to get one, asked for a picture with it. Even eptathlete Dobrynska wrote on the IAAF website that her only regret, in a WCH where she had won the gold, was not being able to get the puppet Berlino!
My World Championships had started with a rush, as soon as we arrived, to go to watch the women's race walk, which took place on Unter den Linden, inaugurating a tradition of having it away from the stadium, which since then became the rule (the only exception I remember Moscow 2013). Rigaudo never challenged for the medals, closing 9th, I think.. It was the first of a series of disappointments for Italy: there was then the 50 km., with Schwazer that at some point loses ground and later quits (and De Luca who, in comeback, arrives 8th), Di Martino down from the podium in HJ, but the biggest regret was for Vizzoni, even if he was not a podium candidate at the beginning. 1st throw: very long, according to some good for the podium, definitely widely for the final, but just out of sector. 2nd throw in the cage. 3rd throw: very controlled, almost in slow motion, ends up 2 cm from 8th place. In the end, Italy's balance was considered a failure because we remained without medals for the first time in the history of the WCH and for the first time since 1956 counting also the Olympics. If we look at the standings today, it turns out that we have won two: if we had known then, the balance would not have been so negative, also considering the placements.
I had met a group of Italians and I commented the races with them: one told of a tormented love story between two athletes, which had influenced the woman's performance. When Marta Dominugez won the 3000sc, she commented "We hope she is not from the Fuentes school". As we know, that hope was disappointed.
Among the other races, I remember women's 800, with Cusma who illuded usin the semifinals and then collapsed in the final and Semenya's revelation of the Semenya, in her first race out of Africa. Then the two PV races: among the women Isimbayeva enters the competition ver high (at 4.70, I think), raises after the first miss and ends up wth zero, among the men Hooker also enters very late (he had physical problems), but he does it and wins. Gibilisco at 5.75 takes the bar down in falling back, while I was undecided whether to cher in English or in German, and closes 7th (he would still have come 4th).
On the way to the stadium, from the underground on, there were many original writings of 1936: they made me think of those who went to see those Olympics, unaware of the carnage that awaited them shortly thereafter. In the stadium venue there was also the Olympic swimming pool, always crowded, I imagine by the event volunteers, since it was not open to the public. Also crowded the 10-meter platform, even with two divers at a time. 8 years later I would swim in an Olympic pool myself.
And in less than a week I'll be there again .
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