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ON TOP OF THE WORLD The IAAF World Championships may have taken a long time to come into being, but in their comparatively brief 30-year history they have more than made up for lost time be providing some of the sport’s most iconic and memorable images. The Olympic Games were by constitution the World Championships, but from the 1960s onwards an increasingly strong lobby was formed among IAAF members convinced that they too should have their own World Championships. In 1976 an IAAF Council meeting in Puerto Rico approved the move and Helsinki was later selected as the host of the inaugural World Championships in 1983. Sandwiched between the heavily boycotted 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, the maiden World Championships benefited from having a full roster of competitive athletes from all corners of the globe and the event was commonly regarded a resounding success. Around 1300 athletes from 154 countries competed in the Finnish capital with Carl Lewis announcing his arrival as a global superstar by taking triple gold in the 100m, long jump and 4x100m relay. Sergey Bubka took the first of what was to become the first of six successive men’s pole vault titles. Meanwhile, on the women’s side the home fans went wild after Tiina Lillak struck gold in the women’s javelin courtesy of her sixth round throw. Rome staged the second edition of the World Championships some four years later and with the fall of the Berlin Wall still two years away East European athletes dominated, particularly in the women’s disciplines. Statuesque Bulgarian Stefka
Kostadinova set a world record of 2.09m - that still stands today - in the women’s high jump. The Italian capital also witnessed the rise of the African endurance athletes, who snared every gold medal in the men’s events from 800m to the marathon with the exception of the steeplechase.
Carl Lewis Show The 1991 Tokyo World Championships - the third edition - are fondly remembered as one of the finest in the 30-year history of the event. Carl Lewis secured a sensational hat-trick of World 100m titles, setting a world record 9.86 and leading home six men to smash through the ten second barrier. He also played his part in the finest ever men’s long jump competition in history. Lewis exceeded Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old world record distance of 8.90m (Lewis broke the sand with a windaided 8.91m). Yet his countryman Mike Powell responded to the challenge soaring out to 8.95m - a world record that still stands today. Tokyo also witnessed the emergence of Michael Johnson as a genuine world-class star as he secured the men’s 200m title. Such had been the success of the fledgling event, the IAAF switched the championships from a quadrennial to a biennial cycle and the 1993 edition staged in Stuttgart, proved an unqualified success. The post Soviet era also ushered in a new breadth of talent from all corners of the
globe. Some 20 nations including the likes of Namibia and Tajikistan claimed gold medals British hurdling duo Colin Jackson and Sally Gunnell blitzed to world records. Jackson 12.91 in the men’s 110m hurdles and Gunnell 52.74 in the women’s 400m hurdles. The meteoric rise of the Chinese women’s endurance runners also caused a stir, as they struck gold in the 1500m, 3000m and 10,000m. The triple jump took centre stage at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg as world records were set in both the men’s and women’s events. Unassuming Brit Jonathan Edwards shattered the men’s mark with a sensational leap of 18.29m. On the distaff side Inessa Kravets of Ukraine achieved the same distinction with a 15.50m effort. Johnson was the track star of the championships as he completed the unusual sprint double of 200m and 400m. Some 26 countries shared the gold medals at the 1997 Athens World Championships to further illustrate the sport’s unparalleled global reach. Pole vault legend Sergey Bubka of Ukraine secured a remarkable sixth successive men’s world title with a championship record 6.01m. Meanwhile, Kenya won their first ever global track championship gold in a women’s event as Sally Barsosio clinched 10,000m victory. Johnson’s stunning 400m world record of 43.18 provided the high point of the 1999 edition in Seville. His US team-mate Maurice Greene
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became the first man in World Championship history to complete the men’s 100m and 200m double and Haile Gebrselassie landed a fourth world men’s 10,000m title on the spin. The championships also took another stride towards total equality in the number of events between the genders as the women’s hammer and pole vault - the latter witnessing a new world record of 4.60m by Stacy Dragila - were introduced into the programme. Edmonton in Canada staged the first IAAF World Championships of the new millennium withCzech great Jan Zelezny throwing over 92m for his third javelin gold, while Greene powered to a third straight men’s 100m title. Meanwhile, Cuban maestro Ivan Pedroso went one better, securing a fourth straight men’s world long jump gold, and Germany’s Lars Riedel topped them all with his fifth discus throw title. Played out to huge crowds inside the resplendent Stade de France the 2003 World Championships in Paris were a huge success. Kenenisa Bekele emerged as the successor to his countryman Gebrselassie beating him to gold in the men’s 10,000m. Hicham El Guerrouj swept to a fourth successive men’s 1500m title. Elsewhere, Sweden’s vivacious heptathlete Caroline Kluft took her maiden world title and Kim Collins of St Kitts & Nevis caused a major shock to win the take the men’s 100m crown. Helsinki became the first two-time host of a World Championships staging the 2005 edition. The women’s steeplechase was added to the schedule meaning that with the exception of the 50km walk (men only) - note, women compete in 100m hurdles and heptathlon rather then the men in 110m hurdles and decathlon - the two sexes had total parity in events. Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba was the star of the championships, completing the 5000m and 10,000m double. World
records were also set in the women’s pole vault and javelin courtesy of Russia’a Yelena Isinbayeva (5.01m) and Cuba’s Osleidys Menendez (71.70m), respectively. US sprinter Tyson Gay was the star of the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, completing the treble of 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Kenyan-born US middle-distance runner Bernard Lagat claimed a unique 1500m and 5000m double, while Chinese phenomenon Liu Xiang took the 110m Hurdles title to go with his Olympic title. On the women’s side, Kluft completed a hat-trick of heptathlon titles, and Germany’s Franka Dietzsch took her third career gold in the discus.
Record-Breaking Bolt Just 12 months after Usain Bolt burst on the global athletics scene like a raging meteor at the Beijing Olympics, the giant Jamaican lit up the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Inside an atmospheric Olympic Stadium he posted jaw-dropping world record marks on 9.58 and 19.19 in the 100m and 200m and also added 4x100m gold. Bekele completed the 5000m and 10,000m double - the latter a fourth straight title. Meanwhile, US sprinter Allyson Felix secured a hat-trick of world 200m titles. The 13th and most recent edition of the IAAF World Championships returned to the east in Daegu, South Korea. Yet Bolt, for once, fluffed his lines stunningly DQ’d for false-started in the men’s 100m final. His training partner and fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake profited in his absence to strike gold. Bolt recovered to retain his world 200m title and also helped Jamaica win gold with a world record in the men’s 4x100m.
In the infield, Dwight Phillips took his fourth long jump title. The women’s stars were the diminutive Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot, who completed the 5000m and 10,000m double supported by Australian hurdler Sally Pearson, who blitzed to a championship record 12.28 with a stunning victory in the women’s 100m hurdles. Brazil’s World Indoor pole vault champion Fabiana Murer took the outdoor crown in an Area record. Moving into to its 30th anniversary year it is now hard to reconcile that it took so long for the IAAF World Championships to come into being. Today firmly established as a two-yearly festival of athletics it can lay serious claim to being the third biggest sporting event on the planet behind the Olympic Games and football World Cup. An estimated global television audience of six billion people are expected to tune into the action for the 14th edition in August which will involve athletes for more than 200 countries. With the next three hosts of the event - Moscow (in August) Beijing and London - major world cities the desire to host the event appears stronger than ever. Happy 30th birthday to the IAAF World Championships. Here’s to the next 30 years and beyond.
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THE MAN IN CHARGE Moscow 2013 Coordination Committee chairman and six-time world pole vault champion Sergey Bubka explains why the IAAF World Championships will be the leading sporting event on the planet this year.
Very few members of the athletics community would have been anything other than giddy with excitement at the overwhelming success of last summer’s London Olympic Games. The on track action and in the infield was exhilarating, the atmosphere inside the full to capacity Olympic Stadium was pulsating. Even the notoriously miserable British weather pleasantly took a turn for the best. In short, it was a vintage Games with athletics - as usual - at its very epicentre. Yet perhaps it would have been human nature for the organisers of the 2013 World Championships in Moscow to at least wonder how they were going to match the drama and passion and an unforgettable London Olympic Games. It will be a formidable challenge. An anticipated 2000 athletes from 200 countries will gather to compete at the historic Luzhniki Stadium - the same cavernous venue which hosted the athletics at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Broadcast to over 210 territories worldwide with an expected cumulative global TV audience
of six billion tuning in to watch the likes of Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix and David Rudisha perform from Aug 10-18 - the 2013 World Championships will be a huge. The responsibility immense. “Behind the Olympic Games and soccer World Cup the World Championships are the third biggest event in the world,” says Sergey Bubka, Moscow 2013 Coordination Committee chairman and six-time world pole vault champion. “With neither of those two events in the world taking place this year the 2013 World Championships are the biggest.”
Global Reach There is little doubting the strength of his argument. For global reach few events can match the World Championships and Bubka is confident that Moscow can also put in a great show. “Athletics is the No.1 Olympic sport and we had fantastic success going back to the (2008) Beijing Olympics Games,” he insists. “The next year we had great success at the Berlin World Championships and then two years later at the
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the media 33,000 tickets will be available for each of the 15 sessions. “We made the decision because the Luzhniki is huge - an 80,000 stadium,” he explains. “They even have problems filling the stadium for football. To make it work, it is better to make a nice decoration, reduce the capacity and work to bring in around 50,000 spectators which is better suited for athletics.” A wide reaching promotional campaign has been launched across TV and social media in an effort to sell tickets. Posters are being put up across the city to further raise awareness of the championships and Bubka, an IAAF vicepresident, is confident the Muscovite’s and wider Russian public will back the championships. “Moscow and the whole of Russia are a very sporty nation,” he explains. “President Putin is also a big supporter of sport, he understands its value and encourages all of society to get involved.”
Host Nation Talent Daegu World Championships. The London Olympics were brilliant, unbelievable with knowledgeable and fantastic crowds. To have a full stadium for morning and evening sessions was a great promotion for the sport athletics. There is no reason that Moscow cannot go the same way.” Yet what defines a successful championships? Organisers promise to serve up the best conditions to allow athletes to thrive. Bubka promises top quality hotels, great training facilities and outstanding transportation. Yet organisers can only impact so much on athletic performance and for the championships to be regarded a hit the pole vault legend knows atmospheric and full stadiums are crucial. “We are satisfied with the strategy and the policy and what should be done (ahead of the championships), but in order to have a successful championships we have to have a full stadium,” he admits. The capacity of the stadium is 50,000 and taking into account areas set aside for VIPs and
Not only that but Russia are also blessed with an outstanding crop of athletes - a fact which should invigorate the crowd in the same way British supporters fed off the success of Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis at the London Olympics. “A big part of any championships is the success of the host nation athletes,” explains Bubka. “Behind the USA, Russia are the second most successful athletics nations on the planet. They will have great champion athletes on view like Yelena Isinbayeva (the pole vaulter), the high jumpers Anna Chicherova and Ivan Ukhov. “This is something what will be great for the atmosphere in the stadium and will also help leave a legacy for the next generation of Russian athletes and this is important.” Bubka also has a more personal reason to be quietly confident of the success of the 2013 World Championships. As a man commonly regarded as “the greatest pole vaulter in history” he competed inside the Luzhniki Stadium on several occasions. It was there he set one of his 35 world records - 6.01m at the 1986 Goodwill Games - a performance he recalls fondly.
“The organisers of the event did a fantastic promo campaign because I remember the stadium was full,” he says. “I was very happy to jump there in the historic stadium which hosted the 1980 Olympics Games.” As for this summer’s World Championships he reiterates the point that Moscow will prove a safe pair of hands. “We would like to deliver the perfect conditions for the athletes and for the crowds to celebrate and enjoy the great performances of the athletes in a good atmosphere,” he says. “I’m sure, the athletics baton will be passed successfully from London to Moscow and then on to Beijing (the venue of the 2015 World Championships) and beyond.”
Five Reasons to Watch the 2013 World Championships David Rudisha The giant Kenyan produced arguably the moment of the London 2012 Olympics by winning 800m gold in a new world record. He has played down a repeat performance in Moscow, but the defence of his world title will make compelling viewing.
Kirani James “The Jaguar” secured the 2011 world and 2012 Olympic 400m title as a teenager. Now aged 20 many believe the gangly sprinter from Grenada has the ability to break Michael Johnson’s long-standing world record for the one-lap distance.
Mo Farah The home track star at the London Olympic Games, will hope to maintain his position as the world’s leading distance runner. He’ll hope to target a 5000m and 10,000m double.
Jessica Ennis The Olympic heptathlon champion will not be lacking in motivation in Moscow as she is out to regain her world title she lost to Russian Tatyana Chernova in Daegu two years ago.
Yelena Isinbayeva The greatest female pole vaulter in history has lost form in recent years and is chasing a first global outdoor title since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Can the Russian superstar lift herself for one more great effort in front of her home crowd in Moscow?
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THE WORLD’S GREATEST With his status as ‘a legend’ confirmed by the successful defence of his Olympic 100m and 200m titles in London last year, it seems logical to pause for breath and wonder - what next for Usain St Leo Bolt? Usain Bolt is a man who has achieved every major prize the sport has to offer. He is already a multi-millionaire, a global icon and the most instantly recognised athlete on the planet. A year after his stellar achievements in London you could forgive the 26-year-old for easing off the pedal and cruising through the 2013 campaign. Yet with the World Championships looming into view in August he will not be lacking in motivation to succeed in Moscow. Why? Well, remember he does not currently hold the World 100m title. Two years ago in Daegu he committed a false start which DQ’d him from the final. He’ll be desperate to claim back what he regards as rightfully his. The second motivating factor is Yohan Blake - Bolt’s countryman and training partner and the man who profited from the disqualification to take 100m gold in South Korea.
Blake has grown in confidence from that success. To such an extent he has the temerity to beat Bolt in both the 100m and 200m at last summer’s Jamaican Championships. Bolt administered revenge over his younger rival when it mattered most at the Olympic Games. Yet at the age of 23 Blake’s scope for improvement is the greater of the two men. In 2013 many believe the gap could close further and for the first time in Bolt’s stellar career he faces a genuine threat to his dominance. Blake AKA “The Beast” is described by Bolt as “the hardest trainer he has ever seen.” The threat is very real, but the signs are that the injury niggles that hampered Bolt’s training over the past few seasons have settled down. In his first serious outing this winter Bolt blitzed to 14.42 over 150m on a specially constructed track on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach - within 0.07 of his world best mark - suggesting he has wintered well. Interestingly, Bolt’s World Championship debut in the 2005 edition was a huge disappointment. Aged just 18 the rookie Jamaican reached the 200m final but injury caused him to cross the finish line a distant eighth. Two years later at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka a more mature Bolt
was showing signs of progress. There he collected the silver medal in 19.91 behind the American Tyson Gay and banked silver with the Jamaican quartet in the 4x100m. Following his sensational breakthrough at the Beijing Olympics expectations reached fever pitch for the 2009 World Championships in Berlin and he did disappoint. Lowering his 100m and 200m world record marks he has set in the Bird’s Nest Stadium the previous summer to an almost implausible 9.58 and 19.19 - a competition which still remains the high point of his career. In Daegu, he bounced back from the bitter disappointment of being thrown out of the 100m final to take gold in the 200m and 4x100m but in Moscow the carrot of proving himself once again should prove irresistible. Blake and Bolt are not expected to compete together in the same race this year before the World Championships, heightening expectations for their expected clashes over 100m and 200m inside the Luzhniki Stadium. Far from becoming bored of the ongoing Bolt saga 2013 could yet see the very best yet of him fuelled by the pain of Daegu and ignited by the deepening rivalry of his training partner and good friend. As with all Usain Bolt performances it will make riveting viewing.
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POSTER GIRL Should Allyson Felix add just one more gold medal to her bulging World Championship collection in Moscow this summer, the Californian will surpass her illustrious compatriots Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson and become the most successful athlete in the 30-year history of the event.
Graceful, stylish and beautifully poised on the track, Allyson Felix, the daughter of an ordained minister, is currently the most complete female sprinter on the planet. Now this year the understated Felix with the 1000-watt grin aims to add another chapter to her storybook career and grab her slice of World Championship history. Few will back against her achieving her goals. Unflatteringly nicknamed ‘chicken legs’ by her high school team-mates for her long, spindly legs it was clear the Los Angeles-born possessed extraordinary gifts from a young age. As a 17-year-old she ran the fastest ever 200m time for a high school girl of 22.11 (a time which was never ratified by the IAAF because no anti-doping control was carried out in Mexico ten years ago. The following year she cemented her arrival as a world-class athlete by posting a world junior record of 22.18 to win 200m silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics behind her erstwhile Jamaican rival Veronica Campbell-Brown. Lacking the sheer raw power to be a true world-class star over 100m her speed endurance - although don’t be fooled by her nickname she can leg press 700 pounds –was perfectly suited to the half-lap distance. Still aged just 19 - she secured her maiden World
Championship gold medal over 200m title at the 2005 edition in Helsinki. Under the coaching of Bobby Kersee, the husband and coach to former Olympic heptathlon and long jump champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee, she successfully defended her 200m title at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, blitzing to an impressive personal best 21.81 and demonstrated her extraordinary range by winning gold medals for the USA in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Yet frustration followed at the 2008 Beijing Games. For the second Olympics in succession she, frustratingly, has to settle for 200m silver behind her nemesis Campbell-Brown. The World Championships - this time the 2009 edition in Berlin - once again brought the best out in Felix as she landed an unprecedented hat-trick of World 200m titles She also grabbed another 4x400m gold. Yet in her quest to maximise her potential she adjusted her sights for the 2010 and 2011 seasons to more seriously target the 400m. The move, while far from a failure, did not quite deliver her desired goals and at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu she landed bronze and silver medals in the 200m and 400m, respectively. Felix and her coach believe the lengthier workouts to prepare for the one-lap event had blunted her speed, so in London Olympic year she opted to concentrate more on honing her 100m speed in an effort to deliver victory in ‘her baby’ the 200m. The plan worked to perfection. Qualifying for the US Olympic team in the 100m she then set a personal best and the quickest women’s 200m time for 14 years to land victory at the US Olympic Trials in 21.69. In London after finishing fifth in the 100m in a new personal record of 10.89 - she finally landed that elusive Olympic 200m title and backed it up with victories for the US in the 4x100m and 4x400m relay, the former in a world record time. Crowned the 2012 World Female Athlete of the Year, Felix is showing signs of breaking into the consciousness of mainstream America. A member of Barack Obama’s Council on Fitness, Sport and Nutrition and a poster girl for Nike there is little doubt that at the age of 27 she is at the peak of her powers both on and off the track. Rio remains the long-term goal, but Moscow the short-term target. Where if she performs as expected she will become the most successful athlete in World Championship history.