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Less than two weeks to go before the Doha World Championships: I will be there from the second day to the second last. They will be my seventh WCH live: of the last I wrote live, of Berlin 2009 I told last year. This time I will talk about my first, those of Paris 2003. They were the Championships of the greatest emotion I had from perhaps all live sport, and certainly athletics: Gibilisco's gold in pole vault. That, however, deserves a separate article: today we will talk about the other events.
I should have gone with my wife, who had to give up for health problems. We had only taken tickets for the afternoon sessions, not knowing if we would go to all the morning ones and we thought that there would still be no problems with the tickets. Instead, on Wednesday morning the tickets were sold out: in any case I found one, exchanging it with the one that was left over for the afternoon. I understood why as soon as I entered the stadium, and it would have been enough to think about what happens at Roland Garros on the first Wednesday to understand it even earlier: it was the students' day, the stadium was full of children. For most days I was in the tribune opposite the final straight, in the first deck, but the last day I was in a bend, in the second deck. The Stade de France is very nice and comfortable, but with few bars.
As for the races, the first one I remember is the 100 meter dash, starting with the quarter-finals (at that time there were still 4 rounds), with Drummond's disqualification oand his long protests, which stopped the race for quite a while. The rule of disqualification for the second false start, even if of different athletes, had just been introduced, and that was a first example of how such a rule risked lengthening times instead of shortening them, a problem that increased with the disqualification at the first false start. The race was surprisingly won by Kim Collins: I can therefore say that I heard the anthem of Saint Kitts and Nevis!
I also participated in a game inspired by 100 meters: we had to stop a chronometer, without looking, as close as possible to the then world record, 9.78. I made a poor show: I stopped after about 6 and a half seconds, clearly the worst. The animator spoke only in French and fast, without worrying that someone might not understand. In the early days there was also the Barber-Kluft duel in the heptathlon, won by the Swede. Then I remember the 200 women, with the victory of White, later disqualified for the Balco scandal, and the bronze of the eighteen year old Allyson Felix. The women's hammer race, held at the beginning of the evening, was very popular, with Montebrun, who came third, incited by a crowd of town fellows in the front rows. But the greatest satisfactions for the French would come in the last few days. First there was Baala's silver in 1500: El Guerrouj was still too strong, but he was at the end of his career and Baala should take his legacy. It was not so, On the last day they had the surprise golds of women's 4X100 and Barber in long jump, with 6.99 at the last attempt.
I had to go and I couldn't attend 4X100's and Barber's medal ceremony. But I saw the ceremony for a French winner of a Paralympic race: the anthem was really deafening, I never heard sing one like that. Speaking of anthems, that edition was the only one where I heard some booing, albeit quite isolated, at an anthem: the American one. But it was a time of strong tension between France and the USA, with the second Gulf War.
Before the start of the sessions they interviewed old glories of French athletics: Mimoun, Pérec. They showed the video of a victory of the latter, with the original commentary, which ended with an orgasm of the commentator "Ouiiiiiiii! Marie-José Pérec!"
As for the Italians, I remember Longo, who illuded us in the preliminary rounds of 800, also because the final seemed very open, then came sixth. Then the throws, with placings that today we can only dream of: Coslovich's 7th place, Legnante's 8th. I saw Baldini's bronze only from the screen, the Marathon was at the same time as track and field races. I also remember Martinez's bronze: today with 14.90 it would seem little, but then the podium was not taken for granted.
Then there was THE RACE, the men's pole vault. But we'll talk about that next time.
Less than two weeks to go before the Doha World Championships: I will be there from the second day to the second last. They will be my seventh WCH live: of the last I wrote live, of Berlin 2009 I told last year. This time I will talk about my first, those of Paris 2003. They were the Championships of the greatest emotion I had from perhaps all live sport, and certainly athletics: Gibilisco's gold in pole vault. That, however, deserves a separate article: today we will talk about the other events.
I should have gone with my wife, who had to give up for health problems. We had only taken tickets for the afternoon sessions, not knowing if we would go to all the morning ones and we thought that there would still be no problems with the tickets. Instead, on Wednesday morning the tickets were sold out: in any case I found one, exchanging it with the one that was left over for the afternoon. I understood why as soon as I entered the stadium, and it would have been enough to think about what happens at Roland Garros on the first Wednesday to understand it even earlier: it was the students' day, the stadium was full of children. For most days I was in the tribune opposite the final straight, in the first deck, but the last day I was in a bend, in the second deck. The Stade de France is very nice and comfortable, but with few bars.
As for the races, the first one I remember is the 100 meter dash, starting with the quarter-finals (at that time there were still 4 rounds), with Drummond's disqualification oand his long protests, which stopped the race for quite a while. The rule of disqualification for the second false start, even if of different athletes, had just been introduced, and that was a first example of how such a rule risked lengthening times instead of shortening them, a problem that increased with the disqualification at the first false start. The race was surprisingly won by Kim Collins: I can therefore say that I heard the anthem of Saint Kitts and Nevis!
I also participated in a game inspired by 100 meters: we had to stop a chronometer, without looking, as close as possible to the then world record, 9.78. I made a poor show: I stopped after about 6 and a half seconds, clearly the worst. The animator spoke only in French and fast, without worrying that someone might not understand. In the early days there was also the Barber-Kluft duel in the heptathlon, won by the Swede. Then I remember the 200 women, with the victory of White, later disqualified for the Balco scandal, and the bronze of the eighteen year old Allyson Felix. The women's hammer race, held at the beginning of the evening, was very popular, with Montebrun, who came third, incited by a crowd of town fellows in the front rows. But the greatest satisfactions for the French would come in the last few days. First there was Baala's silver in 1500: El Guerrouj was still too strong, but he was at the end of his career and Baala should take his legacy. It was not so, On the last day they had the surprise golds of women's 4X100 and Barber in long jump, with 6.99 at the last attempt.
I had to go and I couldn't attend 4X100's and Barber's medal ceremony. But I saw the ceremony for a French winner of a Paralympic race: the anthem was really deafening, I never heard sing one like that. Speaking of anthems, that edition was the only one where I heard some booing, albeit quite isolated, at an anthem: the American one. But it was a time of strong tension between France and the USA, with the second Gulf War.
Before the start of the sessions they interviewed old glories of French athletics: Mimoun, Pérec. They showed the video of a victory of the latter, with the original commentary, which ended with an orgasm of the commentator "Ouiiiiiiii! Marie-José Pérec!"
As for the Italians, I remember Longo, who illuded us in the preliminary rounds of 800, also because the final seemed very open, then came sixth. Then the throws, with placings that today we can only dream of: Coslovich's 7th place, Legnante's 8th. I saw Baldini's bronze only from the screen, the Marathon was at the same time as track and field races. I also remember Martinez's bronze: today with 14.90 it would seem little, but then the podium was not taken for granted.
Then there was THE RACE, the men's pole vault. But we'll talk about that next time.
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