World Athletics Championships in Budapest - Marathon (27-08-2023)

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When I arrive at the point of the route closest to my hotel, I see on the site that at least the first one has already passed at 5 km, which more or less corresponds to the 'outward' passage at that point. Rather than wait for the 'inward' passage (around the 9th km), I prefer to go to yesterday's point, in front of the Opera. Unlike yesterday, however, I'm on the 'inward' side, as each direction of the metro is accessible only from one side of the street. On the stage in front, in addition to yesterday's DJ-set, there is also a violinist, a saxophonist and an opera singer. One sees Italians, Japanese, a Moroccan going back and forth with a big flag, but also flags less common in an athletics competition, such as those of Colombia and Eritrea.

 While I wait for the 'inward' passage of the first lap, which is at the 10 km mark, I look for information on the site, but discover that unlike yesterday it only gives intermediates every 5 km (it will then make an exception for the half marathon). The only source of update between passages would therefore be the screen, provided that it shows the race, which cannot be taken for granted. In the first few kilometres, in fact, it mainly shows interviews and trackside shows: they even went so far as to show a dance as the runners passed by. Even at the 35th km they showed interviews with the public for a while.

 

As the passage of the athletes approached, the announcer informed us that the Mongolian who had gone into a breakaway in the first kilometres had been caught. In fact, as the athletes pass, they are in a group, but it is a much less compact group than the women. Of the Italians I only see, in order, Chiappinelli and Meucci: after a while I realise that Faniel must be ahead, and I check that he is. The Mongolian can already be seen in a crisis, he touches his leg and after a while he will retire.

 

After passing, I try to move to the other side of the street, both to get a better view of the screen and to be ready to take the underground back. I go in the direction I came from, looking for a crossing point: it is shown on the map and what's more, I think I have seen people crossing but cannot find it (when no one is using it, it is not easy to spot). In the meantime, the 'outward' crossing of the second lap arrives (just over the 14th km): the group seems more compact than before. I look for the crossing in the other direction, where further away there was a bridge, and this time I find it.

 

At the 20-kilometre and 24-kilometre passages, the leading group is still over 30, including all three Italians. The gap to the last gradually increases, but nothing like the women yesterday. The only Hungarian, always very much cheered on, passes among the last: he will finish 40th out of 60. The Jordanian, who had been the first to lose contact, slowly recovered positions and at each passage waved to the public and called for applause: in the end he would leave 8 behind.

Shortly after the passage of 24, on the screen I seem to see an Italian in the lead (which is definitely not Meucci) and indeed Chiappinelli has taken the lead at 25 km: the speaker talks about his successes in the steeplechase, from his youth career to the medal at the 2018European Championships. He stays in the lead for more than a kilometre. Soon after, however, it starts to get serious, with kilometres under three minutes. At the 30 km mark there is a leading group of 6, with 4 others close behind (and reading now in names, I note that 2 of the first 4 at the finish were not among the 10). Chiappinelli is slightly detached, Meucci a little more, while Faniel does not pass: after a while it becomes clear that he must have retired, but will not be declared as such until the finish. One sees more and more athletes in crisis, someone stops, one vomits.

 At the end of the third lap, there are three left in the lead: Ugandan Kiplangat and Ethiopians Gebresilasie and Tola. When they pass before me at 34th km, Kiplangat and Gebresilasie are in the lead, with Tola close behind. I can see that Chiappinelli is in a good position, although I can't count it, but Meucci isn't far behind him either. As I said, since then you can't follow the developments well because for a while the screen doesn't show the race and even when it does, it does very tight shots, from which you can't see positions and gaps. At one point the announcers announce that Tola has disappeared from the passages (evidently they had the data of the single km intermediates, which as I write are on the website), so he must have retired.

At the 40 km mark, Kiplangat had a margin of about fifteen seconds on Gebresilasie, while the third, the Israeli Teferi, seemed further back. Surprisingly fourth is an athlete from Lesotho. Chiappinelli is 7th and seems to be making a comeback, I hope he still recovers a few positions, Meucci is 13th. We see an athlete still in a good position stop and then try to restart: he won't make it. I then see on the screen that Teferi overtakes Gebresilasie for silver and Chiappinelli gives way, ending up being overtaken by Meucci: the two finish 10th and 11th. Immediately afterwards comes a Japanese who was fifth at 40 km: so once again Meucci, who with his times in Japan would be one of many and would have no chance of being called up for the national team, leaves all the Japanese behind.

This time, however, as I have no other commitments apart from finishing my luggage, I am staying: I want to enjoy the World Championships to the full and see even the last passagde. There is some doubt as to who is actually the last one, since the website reports athletes who are several kilometres behind, but who officially do not appear to have withdrawn. However, it becomes clear that it is unrealistic that they are still in the race and when whom I assume is the last one passes, I have confirmation of this as he is followed by a car.

 My World Championships end here. I don't know if I will be there at the next ones, being in Tokyo: there were editions where I was looking forward to the next one because I hoped the Italians would bounce back only to find out later that one thought the first edition had gone badly until one had seen the next one. Now I am looking forward to the next edition (but of course, first there are the Olympics) to see the Italians do even better, but knowing that if it was like this time one could be satisfied. In the time I have left before leaving I go to see the exhibition on the history of the WCH, full of interesting memorabilia and evoking memories of all the editions, those seen on TV and those seen live.