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The departure for Doha is getting close. It's time to talk about an edition, the Osaka 2007 one, which had two things in common with this one: the continent and the heat. The temperatures did not reach Doha levels, but it was very humid. The heat was not felt much inside the stadium, but it was a lot outside: fortunately there were nebulizers around the stadium to cool off with.
The stadium could be accessed from two sides: from one there was a large "pre-filtering zone" (to use soccer terminology), on the other the gates were just close. The way was indicated by volunteers who stood for hours and hours holding signs. The first day I arrived when competitions had just begun and the finishes of the women's Marathon were ending. Japan had won a bronze and the gold in the team event: in the WCH history it won 2/3 of its medals in the Marathon. That year it also relied on hammer thrower Morufoshi, and in fact hammer throw was well represented in merchandising.
I asked the result to my neighbors, two old Americans. Now, if you think I'm an fanatic of athletics, you should have seen them: they were able to quote all the results at least in the last 20 years. When in 400 two went below 44", I recklessly said it was the second time, after Mexico 1968: they immediately quoted two other cases in which it happened. They were also surprised that I had not gone to Athens in 2004, so close.
I had the same seat (towards the beginning of the final straight) for all days but one, so we always stayed close. They were increasingly exasperated by the lots of poor performances of their athletes (including discus thrower Rome, who died a few days ago). They complained that the federation selected too many athletes, I complained for the opposite reason. it ahowed especially in women's javelin, where two athletes who would not have been there had they been Italian got to the final, and one (a Greek) arrived fifth. Italy had only Zahra Bani, who competed in the first group and missed qualification by about one meter. It was clear, however, that those in the second group had an advantage, and if we had also sent Coslovich, who had the standard, one of them would have ended up in the second group and could have made it.
Among the Italians, I had my greatest emotion by Howe, with his 8.47 at the last jump, with which he took the lead by 1 cm. After celebration, from both he and I, and the compliments of the Americans, I began to think "keep calm, it is not over". In fact Saladino surpassed him, but it was beautiful anyway. I met Howe at Fiumicino, on the way back: I wanted to tell him something, but just then the doors opened and he was besieged by the photographers.
Of the other races I especially remember sprint: the Gay's 100-200 double, in 200 before Bolt, women's 10, where the result remained uncertain for many minutes after the finish, men's 4X100 with Japan who came 5th with 38.02, among applause of the public. That day the emperor was also there: I remember the passionate applause when his presence was announced.
The stadium could be accessed from two sides: from one there was a large "pre-filtering zone" (to use soccer terminology), on the other the gates were just close. The way was indicated by volunteers who stood for hours and hours holding signs. The first day I arrived when competitions had just begun and the finishes of the women's Marathon were ending. Japan had won a bronze and the gold in the team event: in the WCH history it won 2/3 of its medals in the Marathon. That year it also relied on hammer thrower Morufoshi, and in fact hammer throw was well represented in merchandising.
I asked the result to my neighbors, two old Americans. Now, if you think I'm an fanatic of athletics, you should have seen them: they were able to quote all the results at least in the last 20 years. When in 400 two went below 44", I recklessly said it was the second time, after Mexico 1968: they immediately quoted two other cases in which it happened. They were also surprised that I had not gone to Athens in 2004, so close.
I had the same seat (towards the beginning of the final straight) for all days but one, so we always stayed close. They were increasingly exasperated by the lots of poor performances of their athletes (including discus thrower Rome, who died a few days ago). They complained that the federation selected too many athletes, I complained for the opposite reason. it ahowed especially in women's javelin, where two athletes who would not have been there had they been Italian got to the final, and one (a Greek) arrived fifth. Italy had only Zahra Bani, who competed in the first group and missed qualification by about one meter. It was clear, however, that those in the second group had an advantage, and if we had also sent Coslovich, who had the standard, one of them would have ended up in the second group and could have made it.
Among the Italians, I had my greatest emotion by Howe, with his 8.47 at the last jump, with which he took the lead by 1 cm. After celebration, from both he and I, and the compliments of the Americans, I began to think "keep calm, it is not over". In fact Saladino surpassed him, but it was beautiful anyway. I met Howe at Fiumicino, on the way back: I wanted to tell him something, but just then the doors opened and he was besieged by the photographers.
Of the other races I especially remember sprint: the Gay's 100-200 double, in 200 before Bolt, women's 10, where the result remained uncertain for many minutes after the finish, men's 4X100 with Japan who came 5th with 38.02, among applause of the public. That day the emperor was also there: I remember the passionate applause when his presence was announced.
Among field events, I remember men's high jump, with the surprise victory of Thomas who was saved several times on third attempt, and men's hammer, with 7 over 80 meters. Two of them were disqualified for doping the following year and at the following world championships there was only one. I remember pole vault, instead, only because that day I had taken a different seat to see it better, hoping to see Gibilisco, which instead had been suspended for his dubious encounters. Every day they were raffling off a ticket, whose holder won a meeting with a champion. One evening it was the seat before me, and the champion to meet was Isimbayeva!
One day on the subway I met TV speaker Bragagna with his staff: he was telling about when a Japanese gave him a ride on a bike.
Coming back, I met three Canadian athletes at the airport: hurdlers Felicien and White and the 800-meter-runner Cummings: the latter is very nice. On the plane I saw Lolo Jones, silver medallist in 100hs, endless watching her race. For a while I risked not to leave because of an overbooking problem: if I had to stayp, I could have seen the last day. And Di Martino's silver.
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