World Athletics Championships in Helsinki (2005)

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 The start of the World Championships in Budapest is just around the corner: it will be my eighth live World Championships in athletics. Of the last two (London 2017 and Doha 2019) I have told my experience day by day. I then talked about my memories of Paris 2003 (with a specific post for the race of races, the men's pole vault with Gibilisco's gold). Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009. This time it is the turn of Helsinki 2005.

I was there with my wife and one-year-old son (my daughter would be born three months later), we had taken a flat. The stadium was about twenty minutes away by tram: at the stop we always met the South African Van Zyl (of course I know his name because he had his ID card out), who a few years later would become famous as Pistorius's manager. The first protagonist that comes to my mind is bad weather: for the first time I saw the races suspended because of a downpour (it would happen again the following year in Gothenburg). We had to stand under the stands for quite a while before we managed to get home, where we found out that the races had resumed (but we did not regret leaving, it was also late). Another problem was the delays at the entrance, every day, but particularly on the highlight day for the locals, the day of the javelin final.

The two events I remember best were also held in the rain, namely the most important one for the Italians, the men's pole vault (both qualifying and final) and the most important one for the Finns, the men's javelin. In the pole vault I was confident that Gibilisco could repeat his success of two years earlier, or at least take a medal, having seen him (on TV) win in the European Cup. The qualifying height was 5.75, but because of bad weather and numerous faults, it was lowered to 5.60 during the competition. At that height there was an athlete who had not yet entered the competition, the American Stevenson, silver medallist the year before: only then was it announced that he would not participate. Many, including Gibilisco, did not even clear 5.60: 5.45 without faults was enough to qualify. In the final, there was the surprising victory of the Dutchman Blom, who, after saving himself at 5.50 on third, was the only one to clear 5.80 in difficult conditions. Gibilisco finished fifth with 5.50 on first: it was a disappointment, but it was still better than any other Italian pole vaulter ever did at World Championships and Olympic Games.

In the javelin there was the great surprise of the victory of Estonia's Varnik, whom I had never heard of before, and the great disappointment of the home crowd with Pitkamaki's fourth place. There was also a Paralympic competition, with four athletes each throwing from four fixed positions side by side: the winner threw just more than 20 metres. It was the first time I had ever seen a Paralympic field event.

In addition to a defending world champion (who, as we know, remained the last until 2022), Italy also had two reigning Olympic champions: Brugnetti and Baldini. Both disappointed. Of Brugnetti's race, the 20 km race walk, held on the first day, I remember very little, only the victory of the Ecuadorean Perez: I saw that Brugnetti did not finish. I remember more of the Marathon, of which I only saw updates from the stadium screen: it was still held at the same time as the track races, with the start and finish at the stadium. Gharib (defending champion) started about ten kilometres from the finish, Baldini tried to keep up with him and burst, ending up retiring: had he been content with silver, he might have got it.

These disappointments were partly compensated by the surprise bronze medal in the 50 km race walk, by 21-year-old Alex Schwazer, whom I cannot remember if I had ever heard of before. Logically, I know I saw that race (also at the same time as the track events), but I remember little or nothing. Instead, I saw on TV, as they occurred on the last day, when I had already returned home, the other two nice surprises, the fifth places of Nicola Ciotti and Zahra Bani. The former, which could also have got the silver, was the best ever result in men's high jump, between World Championships and Olympics, and would remain so until 2021.

Of the other races, I remember the men's sprint. The 100 and 200 were still run over four rounds: Gatlin won the 100, as favourite. In the 200, like the year before at the Olympics, Howe did a good first round, but then collapsed in the second. But I was especially curious to see the great absentee from the World Junior Championships the year before, where he had left the field open to Howe. He was a Jamaican, his name was Usain Bolt: he came last in a final held, just to change, in the rain and still won by Gatlin. I also remember the heptathlon, with another edition of the Kluft-Barber duel, won again by the former, more widely than in 2003 and 2006, the victories of Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba in the 10,000 and the 800-1500 double by Ramzi, later disqualified for doping.

By then I had taken a liking to it and, as I said, I also went to Osaka and Berlin. My streak was interrupted in Daegu 2011, which would have been very difficult to reach.