Moscow Open

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CENTRE CENTRE STAGE STAGE 

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ARE THE BEST 

IN EUROPE EUROPE 

ONCE ONCE MORE MORE 

WINNING WINNING HEARTS HEARTS 

AND MINDS MINDS AND 

GOLD GOLD MEDALS MEDALS 

A LOVE LOVE AFFAIR AFFAIR WITH 

ATHLETICS ATHLETICS 

THE “MOSCOW “MOSCOW OPEN” OPEN” 

COMES COMES OF AGE 

MEETING MEETING ‘AREVA’ ‘AREVA’ 

BLANKA VLAŠIC – 

JUMPING HIGH 

№14 October 2009

Andreas Thorkildsen

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and Technology Ltd. 

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Chairman: 

Mikhail Stepanyants 

Deputy Chairman: 

Yuriy Nagornykh, 

Oleg Kurbatov 

Council: 

Evgeniy Bondarenko, Vadim Zelichenok, 

Pavel Voronkov, Nataliya Ivanova, 

Sergey Klyugin, Svetlana Masterkova, 

Oleg Matytsin, Irina Privalova, 

Svetlana Pleskach-Styrkina, 

Nikolay Chesnokov, Marina Kuzina 

Editor in Chief: 

Oleg Kurbatov 

Deputy Editor in Chief: 

Elena Gulyaeva 

Editors: 

Andrey Kharchenko 

Vladimir Spichkov 

Elena Alekseeva 

English Editing: 

C.W. Wrigglesworth 

Translation: 

Tatyana Shirokova 

Design: 

Natalia Babikova 

Photo: 

Robert Maksimov, Nikolay Ivanov, 

Alexander Kiselev, Reuters, IAAF 

Cover: 

Page 1 – photo by Alexander Kiselev, 

pages 2, 3, 4 – photo by Robert Maksimov 

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The editors are not responsible for the accuracy 

of information published in advertising materials 

and “quotations”. The reprinting or use of materials 

from this magazine in any way is only permitted 

with the Editor in Chief’s written consent. 

Oleg Kurbatov 

Editor in Chief 

Dear Readers, 

Weird weather! Sometimes, 

you hear that it is impossible to have 

athletics without rain. 

But this year was something quite extraordinary; 

there was rain everywhere; 

Paris, Zurich and Zhukovsky were all 

underwater. Not many of the competition 

organisers were lucky with the 

weather this year. With less and less 

time remaining before the main athletics 

events in the 2009 season, almost 

every day I looked at the weather 

forecast for the prognosis for the World 

Championships in Berlin and asked 

the question. “Is it really going to be 

raining at the World Championships?” 

I remembered 2005, when Helsinki 

was literally flooded and the pole vault 

competition had to be postponed until 

the last day so that the spectators could 

witness Elena Isinbaeva’s jumping. As 

an organizer of a competition, 

I am aware of how dependant outdoor 

athletic results are on weather. 

But God’s Office in heaven presented 

us with perfect weather at the Olympic 

stadium in Berlin so that the athletes 

could not help but respond with outstanding 

results. 

Read in this issue of “Athletics” 

magazine, the most interesting things 

that happened in the athletic stadiums 

of Europe this summer. 

Mikhail Stepanyants 

Chairman of the Editorial Council 

Dear Friends, 

This season I have watched with great interest 

sportsmen gradually get into shape 

whilst the Athletes’ Representatives tried 

to offer them the most effective schedule 

in order that they could earn money and 

also get into their best form for the main 

tournament of the season. 

Competitions are held all over the world, 

and the athletes move from city to city, 

from country to country. Thanks to the 

Internet and television, we can watch 

how the competitions develop in almost 

any part of the world. But, I have to 

admit, I am always impatiently looking 

forward to the arrival of the World 

Championships, the main event of the 

season. This year, these competitions 

were warmly hosted by Berlin. I think 

that this championship could rightly be 

called the ‘Usain Bolt Championships’. 

The images of his races were incredible 

and Usain has probably become the 

most famous athlete in the world. Usain 

opened the Spanish football season by 

making the first symbolic kick of the 

ball in the Bernabeu stadium of the Real 

Madrid football club. The spectators 

were ecstatic. 

Read all about how athletes prepared for 

Berlin, and what then happened at the 

World Championships, in this fresh issue 

of our magazine. 

Good luck!

2 | www.athletics-magazine.com 

Issue №14 

October 2009 

www.athletics-magazine.com 

contents page 

3 INFORMATION 

8 EUROPEAN EVENT 

Group A ECCC Track and 

Field Seniors in Castellón, Spain. 

“Moscow Open” reaches the top 

league of athletic events 

26 IAAF EVENT 

An athletics tournament which 

took off in non-flying weather 

34 12TH IAAF WORLD 

CHAMPIONSHIPS 

IN ATHLETICS 

Berlin races 

46 HISTORY 

The charisma of Primo Nebiolo 

50 STYLE 

Sanya Richards: 

the fashionable woman from Texas 

54 LEADERS

CARMELITA IS NOT AFRAID OF DOPING CONTROL 

The 29-year-old American, Carmelita Jeter, was one of the 

sensations of the season, by becoming the third fastest 

woman in history in a time of 10.67 seconds for the 100 

metres. It seemed to her that she ran no faster than 10.90 

and she was shocked when incredible numbers were shown 

on the results board. She was asked, at the subsequent 

press conference, how, after the scandal involving Marion 

Jones, she felt when every sprinter who made rapid progress 

came under suspicion of the drug control authorities. 

Jeter responded that she is clean and has never taken any 

banned stimulants. She said that she is one of the American 

athletes who are most often subjected to doping control. 

Sometimes, she has to give blood and urine samples several 

times a week. 

She believes that the gradual progress of her times from 

year to year is in her favour. She has come a long way in 

athletics and did not make any sudden advances as often 

happens when athletes use drugs. She explained her current 

progress, as being the fruits of her training with her new 

outstanding coach, John Smith, with whom she has been 

working since November last year. 

information 

ECSTASY TURNS TO TRAUMA 

FOR POLISH HAMMER THROWER 

Polish hammer thrower, Anita Wlodarczyk, could 

not have believed that there could be such an 

unexpected turn of events during the World Championships. 

She was so shocked that her second 

attempt set a world record that while jumping in 

delight she landed and sprained her ankle. That is 

why she appeared at a press conference, limping 

severely. 

Of course, being injured, she could no longer continue 

in the competition, but it did not bother her 

at all because she knew that her competitors were 

obviously not ready to respond. Anita achieved 

her success without the support of a coach, as 

she had quarreled with him a few weeks before the 

competition. So she performed without any advice 

from the stands. 

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www.athletics-magazine.com | 3

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NERIUS LOOKS TO HER FUTURE 

Germany javelin thrower, Steffi Nerius, announced, at the World Championships 

in Berlin, that, despite her victory she was still going to retire from 

athletics at the end of the year. According to her, she asked her God to be 

allowed to perform as best she could and in return she promised not to be 

greedy and complete her long life in sport. During her career, Nerius took 

part in eight world championships and four Olympic Games. “I do not need 

anymore”, - said Nerius firmly. 

It is significant that her last event was the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki 

in the same stadium in which she first appeared when she won a 

bronze medal in the European Junior Championships in 1991 at the age of 

19. By an amazing coincidence, she also took the bronze in Thessaloniki. 

She confessed that after more than 20 years of the javelin she had become 

fed up with the nomadic life of an athlete. She felt like a gladiator, who was 

being constantly brought to the arena to do battle. 

Nerius had refused all the tempting offers for a future career outside of 

sport, and chose a modest job at her Bayern Leverkusen club, where she will 

train disabled athletes. Perhaps we shall soon see her prodigies as Champions 

of the Paralympic Games. According to her, she has already got experience 

of this work, and feels it extremely important to help disabled people. 

LOOKING FOR MICRO DOSES 

On the third day of the World Championships, the director of one of the 

world’s leading anti-doping laboratory in Lausanne, Professor Martial Saugy, 

regretted that, until now, the test for the most popular form of doping, the 

human growth hormone or HGH had not taken effect. “We know that it is 

used by athletes, but, there still remain some technical problems with this 

test” said Saugy. “In experiments with volunteers who have taken doses of 

the growth hormone, we see that our testing method works well and accurately 

identifies the stimulant. But the technique is still under discussion as 

the micro doses of the drug used to identify HGH, complicate the identification 

of this hormone. So I can not say when the test will be approved and 

put into practice. 

Similarly, we are still having problems discovering those who resort to different 

kinds of blood doping. In cycling, where, the same group of athletes 

take part in all the major competitions, it is easier to establish inconsistencies, 

implying outside influences, in their blood profile. But, at every 

athletics meeting, there are hundreds of new athletes, and it is impossible 

for doping control to establish their natural blood profile. We know that Africans 

and those persons brought up in the middle or high mountains areas 

have a higher than normal blood profile. 

“While looking for blood doping, we should watch for a clear variation from 

the normal hematology of the athlete” explained Saugy. “For this we need 

the help of each athlete’s ‘blood passport’, but we understand that such 

measures push the athletes to use micro-doses in blood doping. Using 

micro-doses considerably reduces the window when it is possible to identify 

the use of doping. The only thing that reassures us is that athletes are 

under the pressure of doping control and understand that traditional mass 

doping is no longer possible.”The IAAF President, Lamine Diack, for his part, 

said, in his speech in Berlin, that everything will be done to protect ‘honest’ 

athletes who achieve success due to their talent and years of hard work and 

sacrifice. Diack warned that doping samples are sent to storage, where they 

will later undergo a second screening and, where it will become possible to 

identify the so far, elusive, new stimulants. 


information

information 

IAAF CHANGES ITS IMAGE 

After a detailed investigation, the IAAF decided to modernize the design of its brand. Whilst retaining the same basic structure, 

the new logo has become more dynamic and colorful to meet the requirements of the modern era. New brand symbols have 

been designed for all aspects of the Association, including the new system of competitions replacing the “Golden League” and 

the World Athletics Final.Development of the new brand took a year and two well recognised agencies, Whitestone and The 

Works, undertook the work. The perception of the brand by the public was considered during its development. Advertising 

companies use the brand as an important tool in their campaigns to attract attention to IAAF athletic competitions. 

event 


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Photo of the issue: 

World Championships 2009 in Berlin. 

Final men’s race in 100 m 

6 | www.athletics-magazine.com

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event 

Group A ECCC Trac 

in Castellón, Spain 


At the end 

of May 2009, 

the final of the 

Group A of 

the European 

Champions 

Clubs Cup was 

held. This is one 

of the premier 

tournaments 

in the 2009 

European 

athletic 

calendar. 

european event 

k and Field Seniors 




Ivan Ukhov 

In the tradition of recent 

years, one of the cities of the 

Iberian peninsular countries 

was chosen as venue for the 

championship. This time it 

was the Spanish city of Castellón. 

The host club was the local 

athletic club, whose men’s 

team had won the Spanish 

Championships. Despite the 

economic crisis in Europe, 

almost all the Group A clubs 

turned out with the exception 

of the women’s team from the 

Greek club, Panellinios. Thus 

there were seven women’s 

teams and eight men’s teams 

in the competition. 

The weather was, in general, 

favourable for getting good 

performances. The temperature 

ranged between 22 and 

27 degrees Celsius and the

wing velocity did not exceed 2- 

3 metres per second. The public 

filled the small and cosy 

municipal stadium, the “Gaeta 

Huguet”, to enthusiastically 

support the athletes. Naturally, 

they favoured the men’s 

team from their own city and 

the women’s team from the 

neighbouring city of Valencia. 

The main battles of the competition 

were the fight for the 

men’s club title between the 

Russian club “Luch” and the 

Portuguese club “Sporting” 

and the race for the women’s 

title between the Russian club 

“Luch” and the Spanish club 

“Valencia Terra i Mar”. As always, 

the first athletes to do 

battle were the men’s hammer 

throwers. A group of strong 

athletes gathered in the ham- 

mer circle and in four throws 

they showed some creditable 

results for the beginning of the 

season. The Italian, Nicola Vizzoni, 

won with 78.67 metres, 

second was the Slovak Libor 

Charfreitag with 77.56 metres 

and the Russian Aleksey Zagornyi 

came 3rd with 75.73 

metres leaving behind the 

Portuguese thrower who could 

only manage seventh. Immediately 

after that the “Luch” 

representative, Aleksandr 

Derevyagin in the 400 metre 

hurdles increased “Luch’s” 

breakaway margin when he 

beat Edivaldo Monteiro from 

“Sporting” into second place. 

During the race, Aleksandr 

stepped on the lane border 

line but he can be forgiven 

as he was drawn in the inside 


Rui Silva 

Francis 

Obikwelu 


event 


Frank Casañas 

lane which is not favoured by 

the runners. However, he managed 

to pull himself together 

and won the race. The Portuguese 

responded by a victory 

from Francis Obikwelu in the 

100 metres in 10.09 seconds. 

The Russian, Andrey Yepishin, 

who was not on his best form, 

could only manage fourth. 

“Luch” put on a show in the 

high jump competitions. Ivan 

Ukhov won an excellent victory 

with a European season’s and 

personal best of 2.34 metres. 

This result was the best of the 

competition and brought Ivan 

a special prize as well as a 

much needed eight points to 

“Luch”. But after “Luch” won 

the high jump luck began to 

let them down. Ivan Yushkov, 

far from his best, could only 

manage fifth in the shot put. In 

the 1500 metres, despite performing 

well in a very strong 

field and beating a former 

European champion Cosimo 

Caliandro, Vyacheslav Sokolov 

finished second to the incomparable 

2009 Indoor European 

Champion, Rui Silva from 

“Sporting”. The 400 metres 

did not change the situation. 

The winner was the Sudanese, 

Rabah Yusif from the English 

Club, whilst Russian Maksim 

Babarykin came third and 

the Portuguese João Ferreira 

was fifth. At this point, “Luch” 

waited for the chance to improve 

the team competition 

and bring about a change in 

the fortunes of the match but 

Pavel Naumov’s had his spikes 

‘clipped’ in the 5,000 metres, 

and, whilst he was put them 

back on, the group of athletes 

Aleksandra 

Fedoriva


Aleksandr 

Derevyagin 


event 

Natalya Sadova 

Mariya Abakumova 


Anna Alminova

an ahead and Pavel spent 

the rest of the time trying to 

catch them up. Unfortunately 

he finished last and “Luch” 

got only 1 point and allowed 

the Portuguese to overtake the 

Russians. In the 4x100 metres 

relay, the Portuguese with 

their powerful sprinter, Francis 

Obikwelu left the Russians behind 

in fourth and, by the end 

of the first day the Portuguese 

were only two points behind 

“Luch”. 

“Luch’s” women faired better. 

On the first day, Natalya 

Sadova won the discus by almost 

5 metres from Liliana Cá 

of “Sporting” who took second 

place. Pole vaulter, Aleksandra 

Kiryashova also won 

despite taking three attempts 

at her opening height and 

making the team coaches very 

nervous. In the 400 metres, 

Natalya Nazarova managed to 

beat the Nigerian runner from 

the Spanish club into second. 

But, despite not letting 

the team down, after the race 

she could not get up from the 

grass for almost 20 minutes. 

There was an interesting battle 

in the 3,000 metres where 

Russian Anna Alminova and 

Elvan Abeylegesse, running 

for the Turkish club “Enka”, 

competed against each other. 

The rivals led in turn and the 

outcome was in doubt up until 

the very end but Anna ran brilliantly 

on the day and hit the 

front 300 metres from the line 

and came first in a new personal 

best and championship 

record 8:40.63. The victory of 

Javelin thrower Mariya Abakumova 

brought another 7 points 

to Luch. Three second places 

followed to the Russians, one 

in the 400 metres hurdles to 

Irina Obedina, a second in 

the 3,000 metre steeplechase 

where Natalya Medvedeva‘s 

brave personal best run should 

be noted. The 4 x 100 metres 

relay also brought the Russians 

a second place where 

Olympic Champion Aleksandra 

Fedoriva ran the last leg 

having earlier taken another 

Natalya Nazarova 

event 



silver medal in the 100 metres 

in a new personal best 

time of 11.51 seconds. At the 

end of the first day the margin 

that the Russian women 

held could have been greater 

if everything had gone more 

smoothly. In the 800 metres, 

somewhat unexpectedly, Mariya 

Shapayeva only took 5th 

place having had a very bad final 

straight. Meanwhile in the 

triple jump, Anna Kuropatkina 

was not on song, jumping only 

13.23 metres for fourth place. 

As a result, after the first day 

although the sportswomen of 

Yevgeniy Plotnir 


“Luch” were leading, the team 

managers were not satisfied. 

The beginning of the second 

was an anxious time for 

the Russian teams. Pole vaulter, 

Viktor Chistyakov failed at 

the opening height whereas 

the Portuguese jumper, Edi 

Maia came second in the 

competition. But the situation 

for “Luch” became more favourable 

as the day unwound. 

The victory of Konstantin 

Shabanov in the 100 metres 

hurdles was a pleasant and 

unexpected surprise for the 

Muscovites. The balance was 

Chris Tomlinson

estored by the second places 

of Ildar Minshin in the 3,000 

metres steeplechase, who 

had a desperate battle with 

the winner, Enrique Sánchez 

over the final 300 metres and 

Yuriy Koldin in the 800 metres 

who bravely led the first 

lap and only gave way to the 

Slovak Josef Repčík in the 

last straight. The Portuguese 

responded with their heavy 

guns. Francis Obikwelu won 

the 200 metres with Roman 

Smirnov in second. “Luch” 

replied with a second place 

to Aleksandr Ivanov in the 

Javelin. Although this was the 

first time Aleksandr had performed 

after serious injury, 

he finished 2 places ahead 

of the Portuguese thrower 

putting the Russians again in 

front. Meanwhile at the same 

time, triple jumper, Yevgeniy 

Plotnir won his competition 

and “Luch” increased their 

lead over Sporting. Before the 

two last events “Luch” were 5 

points ahead, but the Portuguese 

did not surrender. Rui 

Silva defended his country’s 

honour winning the 3,000 

metres while Vyacheslav 

Shabunin representing “Luch” 

for the twelfth time in this cup 

faced a difficult job as all the 

other runners were considerably 

younger, with the youngest 

Tanzanian Marco Joseph 

being twenty years his junior. 

The race started tactically 

and all was to be resolved 

in the last 600 metres. As a 

result Rui Silva won, Kenyan 

Bernard Kiptum from the Slovenian 

club was second and 

Vyacheslav Shabunin came 

third and putting “Luch” 3 

points ahead before the last 

event, the 4x400 metres relay. 

Again it was down to the relay 

to decide everything. The 

Russian runners were Ivan Kozhukhar, 

two masters of the 

400 metres hurdles, Vladimir 

Antmanis and Aleksandr 

Derevyagin, and, on the final 

lap, Maksim Babarykin. The 

Portuguese were full of confidence 

and, after the first leg, 

Konstantin Shabanov 

were in the lead, with Russian 

Ivan Kozhukhar being the fifth 

to cross the line. In a swift relay, 

it is difficult to evaluate 

the situation and count places 

and points but it was clear 

that the efforts of the Russians 

Vladimir Antmanis and 

Aleksandr Derevyagin were 

paying off and the Russians 

were gaining on the leaders. 

At the finishing line the British 

won, the Portuguese were 

second with the Slovaks third 

with the Russians fourth. With 

this result “Luch” remained 

1 point ahead of “Sporting” 

and won the title. 

For the women, the second 

day was a lot quieter. All the 

sportswomen from “Luch” 

came in the top three except 

for young Marina Andryukhina 

who came fourth in the 100 

metre hurdles and, in the 1500 

metres, the experienced Olesya 

Mikheyeva (Chumakova) 

also came fourth. The excellent 

jump of the Portuguese 

Naide Gomes in the long jump 

(6.82 metres) did not put off 

the Russian jumper, Yelena So- 


kolova, who confidently took 

second place with a season’s 

best jump (6.65 metres). Despite 

the Spaniard Ruth Beitia 

winning the high jump with 

Russian, Svetlana Shkolina 

coming second, the Spanish 

women failed to get close to 

the Russian team and so the 

Russians finished the second 

day in the lead. Victories by 

Olga Ivanova in Shot Put and 

Aleksandra Fedoriva in the 

200 metres made the Russian 

team practically uncatchable. 

Elvan Abeylegesse won the 



5,000 comfortably and Oksana 

Belyakova also ran easily 

to take third place, with Italian 

Elena Romagnolo second. The 

4 x 400 metres put a victorious 

full stop to the “Luch” performance 

when they won by a 

big margin and in an excellent 

time of 3:29.60. 

The competitions turned out 

to be very spectacular and the 

spectators were very pleased. 

But the competitions were not 

so lucky for all the sportsmen. 

There were injuries (Despite 

jumping with a bandaged leg, 

Slovakian Dmitrij Valukevic finished 

fifth) and replacements 

(a replacement sportswoman 

from the Israeli club ran the 

800 metres in more than 3 

minutes) but athletics, in general, 

was the winner. These 

Cup Competitions proved that 

athletics is as spectacular and 

unpredictable as football and 

other sports games. 

Yuriy KUKANOV 


Svetlana 

Shkolina 

Ruth Beitia


Naide Gomes 



At the Press Conference on 

the eve of the “Moscow Open” 

tournament, the Chairman of 

Moscomsport, Mikhail Stepanyants, 

reminded journalists 

of the circumstances behind 

the idea to hold this competition. 


“We began losing athletics 

in Moscow” he said. “The 

Brothers Znamensky Memorial 

Meet moved from the capital 

to Moscow Region and Moscow 

faced the problem of not having 

a competition of its own. 

Moscow needed its own big 

«Moscow 

Yuriy 

Borzakovskiy 

international tournament. Even 

the Mayor of Moscow, Yuriy Luzhkov, 

addressed this problem 

and, together, we organised this 

competition. Now the “Moscow 

Open” athletic tournament 

is one of the most important 

sports events held in our city.” 

reaches 

of athlet 

Three years ago, the new 

Moscow competition was 

quickly realised and when it 

was held for the second time, 

last year, it took third place 

among similar European 

Events and got a high status 

of the European Athletics Outdoor 

Premium Meeting. 

This time in Moscow, Russia’s 

leading athletes, acting 

responsibly, joined invited 

overseas stars to make 27 

countries represented in 15 

events on the 1st July 2009. 

Before the competition had 

started it was already obvious 

that it would, in all aspects, 

exceed that of last year. Professionally 

made programmes 

contributed to the overall effect 

and the quality of entrants in 

some events was so good that 

even the IAAF Super Grand 

Prix meetings would have 

been envious of the “Moscow 

Open”. 

The warm, but not hot, 

weather helped achieve some 

good performances. It was 

thanks to the performance 

of Moscow’s young athletes 

that there were twice as many 

spectators in the stadium as 

compared to a year ago. A 

junior’s event was staged before 

the main events and all 

the parents and friends of the 

young athletes turned out to 

watch them. This doubled the 

number of spectators. 

On the track in the 800 metres, 

Yuriy Borzakovskiy starred 

in one of his showcase victories. 

Neither his fellow countrymen 

nor the invited Kenyan, 

Reuben Bett could live with

Open» 

the top league 

ic events 

Maksym 

Mazuryk 

him. Though, a patriot of his 

native city, Zhukovskiy, Yuriy 

had to admit that the track at 

Luzhniki Stadium suited a fast 

race more than the one in his 

home town. “Being my home 

and with local fans supporting 

me, I normally perform well 

in Zhukovskiy but the track is 

more suited to training than 

to competition running. It is a 

little bit soft.” said Yuriy, “but 

Luzhniki is not bad for running 

on. However, my favourite 

stadium, of all time, is Athens 

where I became Olympic 

Ivan Ukhov 


Yaroslav 

Rybakov 



Viktor Chistyakov 

congratulates his wife 

Anna Alminova 


Champion. I also like to run in 

Monte Carlo where the track is 

perfect. Brussels is made for 

the 800 metres whereas, in 

the World Championships in 

Berlin, I think, one has to be 

ready to run 1.42 because the 

track is fast and there will be a 

lot of good competitors. There 

are a lot of youngsters putting 

performances close to these 

times now-a-days and all of 

them are very fast but I think 

there is enough time to prepare 

for the Championships. 

The main thing is to be sure 

that my health doesn’t let me 

down as happened before my 

recent trip to the USA when 

I got the flu and didn’t run 

well. Because of the illness, I 

haven’t trained for a long time. 

At the preparatory training in 

Cheboksary, I hope to be able 

to run into form in time for the 

World Championships. 

Pole Vaulters performed well 

at the “Moscow Open” for the 

beginning of July. The winner 

was the Ukrainian Maksym 

Mazuryk who cleared 5.70 

metres. The vaulters who took 

the next four places all jumped 

5.60 metres. Viktor Chistyakov, 

who would later win the 

national championships, was, 

on this occasion, sixth with 

5.50 metres. 

The high jump dual between 

Yaroslav Rybakov and season 

leader Ivan Ukhov was most 

compelling. Both jumped 

2.34 metres and then attempted 

2.36 metres. Later, 

it was to be the same at the 

Russian National Championships, 

when they would both 

clear 2.35 metres. In Moscow, 

Yaroslav lost on the number 

of jumps used for taking 2.34 

metres whereas Ukhov jumped 

this height at his first attempt. 

Pole Sylwester Bednarek was 

obviously not ready to compete 

against these giants of 

the sport and took the third 

place with 2.25 metres. 

In the women’s programme, 

virtually every event was contested 

with the leaders not prepared 

to lose their psychologi-

In the lead are Anastasiya Kapachinskaya and 

Yuliya Gushchina 




Tatyana 

Lebedeva 

cal superiority to their rivals. 

In the 200 metres, last year’s 

winner, Yuliya Gushchina was 

determined to repeat her success. 

She ran the distance in 

22.87 which was not at all bad 

for the beginning of the season. 

She admitted she would 

like to get into the national 

team and perform in the two 


relays (the 4x100 metres and 

the 4x400 metres) as she had 

done in Beijing. Though she 

said this year it was going to 

be difficult to expect the same 

level of adrenalin as she had 

experienced at the Olympics. 

Gushchina said that a result 

of around 22.60 in the 200 

metres at the Championships 

of Russia should be enough to 

get her into the national team. 

At the same time, she admitted 

that, following the appearance 

of her compatriot Antonina 

Krivoshapka, competition 

for 400 metres relay places 

had intensified considerably. 

“I hope that I have already 

taken enough rest, both physically 

and morally, after the 

Games, because last year I 

performed in far too many 

events both before and after 

the Olympics and I was so 

tired that I couldn’t pack my 

bags in order to fly to a competition 

in another country. 

The 400 metres continues to 

be my most interesting event 

because it is necessary to decide 

at what stage of the race 

you have to invest the most energy. 

The 200 metres is much 

simpler.” said Gushchina after 

her “Moscow Open” race not 

knowing that, at the Russian 

Championships, she would 

Antonina 

Krivoshapka 

only finish 7th in the 400 metres. 

Gushchina was right to 

advise that one should take a 

close look at Krivoshapka. Krivoshapka 

won the 400 metres 

easily at the “Moscow Open” 

with the promising time of 

50.24 which she would later 

improve, at the Russian Championships, 

to 49.29. 

The European Athletics Indoor 

Champion Anna Alminova 

was another Russian star 

who turned out for the “Moscow 

Open”. She said that she 

was here to continue to polish 

her form for the final stages of 

her preparatory training. She 

easily won the 1500 metres in 

a time of 4:03.77. Alminova 

said that she was just starting 

serious training in order to get 

a good result at the national 

championships. 

The performance of another 

European Champion, Mariya 

Savinova, became the result 

of the tournament. She ran

Naide Gomes 

a world leading time 1:57.90 

in the 800 metres. “I did not 

think it would be so easy” she 

said. “I was expecting Andrianova 

and Klyuka to press me. 

150 metres before the finish I 

felt I had bags of energy left. 

Now I am ready for any race. 

I didn’t plan to get a place, I 

was running only to win and 

now I understand that if I need 

to I can put in a turn of speed 

at selection training. We have 

planned to run even faster 

this summer than during the 

winter and we are on track to 

achieve this goal.” 

According to Savinova, the 

track at Luzhniki is very much 

suited to middle distance run- 

ning as it is neither too soft 

nor too hard. The excellent 

weather also added to the 

ideal race conditions. Savinova 

said that this event fitted 

into her schedule very well 

as it allowed her to check her 

form in a real race. This gave 

her the opportunity to test 

her competitiveness in a big 

field whereas local or regional 

races did not create the emotional 

stress. 

Everybody expectantly 

awaited Tatyana Lebedeva’s 

long jump appearance. Unfortunately 

her preparation 

for the new season has been 

injury affected. The outstanding 

Portuguese, long jumper, 

Naide Gomes, was her main 

rival who she was forced to 

pull out all the stops in order 

not to be beaten by her old 

acquaintance. Lebedeva lost 

by only 1 centimetre jumping 

6.93 metres. “I am pleased; it 

is a good result for me. What 

is important is that now I understand 

I have the potential 

to improve on this result” 

Lebedeva said, “I have to correct 

my jumping only a bit. 

In this competition, I jumped 

guided by my feelings only 

without any input from the 

trainer. I have already been 

selected in the long jump for 

the national team but I would 

like to perform at the World 


Championships in the triple 

jump as well.” 

Based on performance only, 

let alone other factors, this 

year’s “Moscow Open” was 

considerably better than last 

year’s competition. As the organisers 

planned, the “Moscow 

Open” has been raised 

to a new level getting much 

more international attention. 

For Moscow, whilst it is in the 

process of preparing for the 

IAAF World Championships in 

2013, it is a matter of prestige 

to have an athletic competition 

which is no worse than those 

held in a number of other European 

capitals. 

Ivan PETROV 


event 

An athletics 

tournament which 

took off in non-flyi 

weather 


ng 

The future of one of the biggest European Tournaments was 

decided at highest level in Government last year. So important 

was this athletics tournament to France that one may even say the 

decision was taken in the Élysée Palace itself. Sponsorship for the 

competition passed from its former sponsor, the “Gaz de France” 

company, into the hands of the even more powerful state nuclear 

power construction company, the “Areva” Group. This group, 

which builds power stations all over the world, did not object at 

all. They understood the advantage of associating nuclear energy 

to the energy of athletes. In addition the General Manager of 

the competition was also changed. The former sports manager, 

Laurent Boquillet, who is well known in the athletics’ circles, 

became the new General Manager. He took on the responsibility 

of revitalising the tournament which became the “Meeting Areva”. 

event 

www.athletics-magazine.com | 27 

Photo Reuters

IAAF event 

A very important athletics 

competition – the Paris 

“ÅF Golden League” 

meeting or, now, 

“Meeting Areva” 

Before becoming General 

Manager, Laurent had worked 

in the world of football, being 

the manager of Turin’s Juventus. 

But, before that, he was 

the Athletes’ Representative 

of such celebrities as Hicham 

El Guerrouj and Stéphane Diagana, 

having earlier worked 

with athletes in “Nike” Company. 

In answer to a question 

put to him by our magazine, 

Laurent said: 

“The new work is very interesting. 

I must create an 

athletics event that will bring 

joy to many people. Not in the 

style of the World or European 

Championships but more 

of a big show where people 

can relax and enjoy themselves. 

Of course, the only 

thing I cannot do, because it is 

beyond my power, is to guarantee 

nice weather. 

“What do you consider to 

be your biggest achievement 

so far?” 

“The fact that I managed to 

bring Usain Bolt to Paris. I am 

also happy that such stars as 

Elena Isinbaeva and Kenenisa 

Bekele are also competing 

in our competition. We managed 

to sell enough tickets 

to fill about 50,000 seats. In 

fact, I was only limited by the 

budget. If it had been bigger, 

I would have tried to invite 

Tyson Gay. I had the same 

amount of money as last year, 

2.5 million Euros. However, 

when you pay 200,000 Euros 

for Bolt, there is very little 

change left to pay for other 

athletes, but I am happy that 

everything went well. I am 

satisfied with the results.” 

“In Paris, we are again 

not going to see the Gay/Bolt 

head to head. There is an im- 


pression that they are avoiding 

each other.” 

“On the one hand, it is a 

disappointment but, on the 

other, it is good that the strongest 

sprinters are not going to 

meet before the World Championships 

in Berlin. The fans 

are left anticipating the confrontation 

which increases 

the dramatic tension of the 

forthcoming Championships. 

People are intrigued by the 

way they are trying to respond 

to each other at different competitions. 

Everybody understands 

that a real contest is 

awaiting us in Berlin. It would 

be wrong to decrease this dramatic 

tension beforehand. Another 

factor is that the athletes 

do not want to lose to each 

other before the Championships 

because one of them is 

going to lose in any case and 

losing beforehand will only 

create a psychological disadvantage 

for the loser. I think 

that on a personal level they 

are ready to compete against

each other but not before the 

World Championships.” 

“Has your experience as 

an athletics manager helped 

you in your new job?” 

“Yes, together with my assistant, 

I have been using my 

knowledge to personally invite 

athletes to attend our competition 

because I knew well how 

it had to be done. But it is not 

easy to organise these events 

because there is no guarantee 

that agreements reached with 

athletes and their managers 

will be honoured. People get 

injured, lose their form, catch 

the flu and some athletes may 

not even have sufficient time 

to prepare for each event 

properly. I understand all the 

problems and, for me, it is not 

the end of the world when an 

athlete who has been invited 

and agreed to come to my 

competition does not turn up. 

As a manager, I am aware that 

anything may happen in life. 

Each European competition 

has its own atmosphere and it 

is difficult to compare them. 

I had Bolt, the French stars, 

Bekele and Lagat whilst, in 

Berlin, there was Friedrich.” 

“In Berlin, the sponsor 

of the IAAF “ÅF Golden 

League” stage hired buses 

and distributed free tickets 

in order to bring spectators 

from different areas of the 

country to the competition. 

What do you do to fill the stadium 

with spectators?” 

“We sold 35,000 tickets 

and gave 15,000 tickets to 

sponsors. Our success can 

be attributed, in many ways, 

to the appearance of Usain 

Bolt. On the eve of the event, 

there were no tickets left for 

sale. When people read, in 

“L’Équipe”, the announcement 

of Bolt coming to Paris, 

we sold 5,000 tickets in one 

day. Athletics requires that we 

explain to people what they 

will see at the stadium and 

it needs a lot of preparatory 

work. It is not the tour of a famous 

pop group where tickets 

are sold in one day. Our work 

is laborious. Our advertising 

company was promoting Bolt 

all over Paris, on TV, buses 

etc. I was giving interviews to 

radio and newspapers orientated 

to people of West Indian 

and African origins but living 

in Paris. But we knew that 

these people are not wealthy 

which is why we cut ticket 

prices down to 10 Euros. In 

this way tickets were affordable 

to fans living in the outskirts 

of Paris.” 

“Is it true that there are 

plans to move from the gigantic 

athletic arena “Stade 

de France” to the municipal 

stadium “Stade Charléty” 

where the 2002 Grand Prix 

final was held?” 

“Certainly there is a special 

atmosphere in a big stadium, 

as compared to, for instance, 

the stadiums at Zurich and 

Lausanne. It is prestigious 

to hold competitions in the 

“Stade de France”. But, to do 

so, requires a lot of money 

IAAF event 

and effort. The arena of the 

stadium alone cost us from 

Euros 800,000 to 1,000,000. 

If I move to a smaller stadium, 

for example, the much cheaper 

“Stade Charléty”, my budget 

for inviting star athletes 

will immediately increase by 

500,000 Euros and this is a 

big temptation. For this additional 

money, I could have invited 

everybody I had wanted. 

I have not got a final answer 

yet about stadium selection, 

but, personally, I would much 

prefer to sell 20,000 tickets at 

30 Euros each for the “Stade 

Charléty”. 

“How did the “Areva” 

Group become the sponsor?” 

“Honestly, I think it was a 

political decision taken by 

Government. “Gaz de France” 

decided to change their sponsorship 

strategy when they 

merged with another energy 

company. But they couldn’t 

simply walk away from their 

responsibilities and leave the 

competition without a sponsor. 

I think it was then, at a 

high level, that it was decided 

to attract “Areva” to athletics. 

The strategic position of 

this company is to get close to 

the French public. Before our 

competition they sponsored 

the America’s Cup yachting 

competition and spent about 

Euros 30 million on it. That 

competition was very prestigious 

but not many people 

watched it whereas athletics 

sponsorship is much cheaper 

and reaches a much bigger 

audience. “Areva” intends 

to attract the attention of the 

French electorate to support 

a strategy of a nuclear power. 

It intends that people should 

stop being scared of nuclear 

energy which, in our competition, 

has been linked to the 

energy of athletes. It is much 

cheaper than Football or Formula 

1 sponsorship. For rela- 


IAAF event 

tively little money you can 

attract the best athletes in the 

world to the competitions.” 

“What is your dream in 

your new job?” 

“My dream as an organiser 

remains the “Stade de France”, 

70,000 spectators and enough 

money to invite the best 3 in 

every event. However, under 

the present restraints, I would 

be happy with competitions in 

the “Stade Charléty”. It is my 

job now to negotiate with my 

partners and discuss the perspective 

of moving competitions 

to the “Stade Charléty”, 

a municipal stadium which 

is given to us free-of-charge. 

We have only just finished renewing 

the “Stade de France” 

track. To be precise we finished 

this morning. “Stade 

Charléty” is going to be at my 

disposal for a whole week and 

I intend to hold different children’s 

events there. Now it is 

possible for everyone to come 

to “Stade Charléty” and train 

there free-of-charge.” 

“Is the tendency of transferring 

the biggest athletics 

tournaments to smaller stadiums 

a sign of the decreasing 

popularity of athletics? Ber- 


lin is also going to withdraw 

its competition from the big 

Olympic Stadium.” 

“I think that even in the big 

cities, the number of spectators 

for big athletic competitions 

has always been around 

30-35,000 people and I think 

there is nothing significant 

in the fact of us moving the 

competitions to smaller stadiums.” 

“But you have to admit 

that Paris is a special city in 

the attitude of its inhabitants 

and its authorities towards 

sport?” 

“Yes, in Paris, the government 

and local authorities at 

different levels extend a big 

influence over sport and love 

it. I have staked my reputation 

on attracting the public who 

live in the suburbs and I want 

to cut down the ticket price 

for these people.” 

“What is the role of the 

French Athletics Federation 

in the holding the Parisian 

competition?” 

“I am not only the General 

Manager of the competition 

but also the General Manager 

of “SAOS” company of which 

90% belongs to the French 

Athletic Federation. In this 

case, I am an employee of the 

French Athletic Federation 

and the competition belongs 

to it. Besides this, I have my 

own business in Paris which 

is the ice cream shop “Grom” 

at Rue de Seine. It sells the ice 

cream of an Italian Company 

which has opened its shops all 

over the world.” 

Nuclear energy in the 

service of the athletics. 

Bolt’s show 

Usain Bolt sat on the chair 

and pressed his huge feet 

onto a plastic square in order 

to leave an impression in it. 

His foot print, cast in molten 

metal, will occupy the place 

of honour at the entrance to 

the “Stade de France”. This 

procedure, which happened 

at the press conference before 

the IAAF “ÅF Golden League” 

competition, gave the arrival 

of the world superstar even 

more importance. All the intrigue 

of the competition had 

been built around him. Radiating 

cheerfulness, Bolt wanted 

to thank the hosts of the 

competition with a new record 

promising that everything was 

possible given good weather 

and a fast track. 

Photo Reuters

Photo Reuters 

“If the weather is going to 

be like today, I shall clock a 

very fast time.” said Bolt. 

“But your run is always special 

even if you do not break 

any records.” flattered the person 

in charge of the press conference 

in response to Bolt’s 

comments. 

“I enjoy competition but I am 

always confident in myself”, 

continued Bolt, “Even if I lose 

a race I do not lose my confidence. 

Much depends on how 

comfortable you feel on the 

track.” The talk then turned to 

football and it was clear that 

Bolt is still very interested in 

this topic. “I am distressed 

that Ronaldo left my favourite 

team, Manchester United, 

and went to Madrid. He plays 

like a real master but we still 

have a good team despite losing 

two key players and we are 

very strong in midfield.” Only 

an appeal from the person in 

charge of the press conference 

put an end to the discussion 

on the merits of English 

Football. 

“For me, it is very important 

to win the World Championships 

this year”, admitted 

Bolt. “It will take me a step 

nearer my goal of becoming 

a sprint legend. If I win in 

Berlin, it will prove that my 

IAAF event 

victory in Beijing was not accidental.” 

Bolt has become the symbol 

of the Paris competition and 

a whole sector of the stadium 

was named after his country in 

honour of him. The spectators 

sitting in this sector of the stadium 

got free black baseball 

caps with the inscription of Jamaica 

written on it. All service 

personnel of the competition 

were dressed in over shirts 

inscribed Jamaica and from 

time to time the background 

music in the stadium was 

Reggae style. The three times 

Olympic Champion and three 

times World Record Holder 

ran swiftly in Paris to set a new 

competition record of 9.79 

seconds. With his giant sprint 

and his height of 1.95 metres, 

he performed like a well oiled 

machine trying to escape the 

cold rain which unexpectedly 

poured down on the stadium. 

The most impressive part of 

his race was the second half 

of the distance. Previously the 

weather had been quiet and 

hot but the sudden downpour 

just before the competition 

started, caused the organisers 

some problems and, if Bolt 

had made a better start, then 

even without any extra effort 

on his part he could not have 


IAAF event 

avoided setting a new World 

Record. However, even without 

a world record, those who 

watched his run were highly 

impressed by the show. The 

stadium shuddered with congratulations 

and it was only 

Bolt who managed to keep a 

cool facade. Later he would 

say that, this summer, he had 

brought rain wherever he performed. 

Afterwards he would 

say that he was happy with 

the fact that even with a poor 

start he managed to perform 

well and change the outcome 

of the race to his favour during 

the second half of the distance. 

“I felt great. It seemed 

to me as though I was flying,” 

said Bolt. But he made a slip 

of the tongue by saying that 

he continues to be careful 

especially in bad weather in 

order to avoid injuries on the 

eve of the World Championships. 

Whatever advances he 

has made, it was going to be 

difficult for him to set out to 

break the world record. But 

even, as a concept, he said 

that it wasn’t going to happen 

before the Berlin World Championships. 

The General Manager of 

the meeting, Laurent Boquillet, 

took full advantage of Bolt 

during the competition. There 

was an unprecedented revival 

of interest in athletics from 

the numerous inhabitants of 

Paris, born of African and the 

Caribbean blood. The main 

sponsors of the competition, 

the giant “Areva” Group, needed 

just that kind of a hero. 

Bolt had made the agreement 

to come to Paris in January. Of 

course the competition would 

have been more impressive if 

the season’s leader Tyson Gay 

had also taken part in the 100 

metres but both athletes preferred 

to compete in words. 

In Rome, in the “ÅF Golden 

League” event, Gay ran the 100 

metres in the season’s leading 

time of 9.77. Bolt remained 

unlucky with the weather in 

Lausanne where he raced in 

the 200 metres. Although it 


was also windy, rainy and cool 

there, he clocked 19.59 but 

Tyson Gay ran the 200 metres 

in New York in 19.58 seconds. 

It was surprising that there 

were so many spectators at the 

Paris Meet, around 50,000. It 

looked as if the city already 

overcrowded with tourists was 

a long way away from taking 

an interest in athletics. Despite 

the athletics programme, the 

streets hummed with continuous 

festivities. During the tourist 

season, local inhabitants, 

as always, used this time to 

earn money. Groups of Gypsy 

beggars congregated around 

the Eiffel Tower, whilst street 

artists and musicians, Arab 

conjurers (playing the thimble 

game) all crowded the streets 

of Montmartre and ran to intercept 

the tourists whilst the 

athletes sprinted on the tracks 

of the stadium. 

Educational events for the 

numerous child spectators and 

paid for by sponsors were also 

included into the competition 

programme. Before the start of 

the main competition, children 

were taught to render first aid 

at accidents and physical training 

instructors demonstrated 

different activity games for 

them. A lot of the young spectators 

would remember this day 

for the rest of their lives. For 

a long time now sports events 

have been used, in Europe, to 

educate youngsters in different 

public programmes. 

Elena in a Chinese Outfit 

Elena Isinbaeva was another 

star at the Paris Tournament. 

As a matter of course, everybody 

was awaiting yet another 

world record from her after 

she had assured everyone that 

she had restored her self confidence 

after her good performance 

in Rome. However the 

bad weather again ruined her 

plans. Although she won, the 

height of 4.65 metres was not 

that good for the world record 

holder. Svetlana Feofanova 

took second place with 4.55 

metres. 

“The weather was awful. It 

was impossible to adjust to 

it,” complained Elena, “worst 

of all was the swirling wind. It 

was impossible to produce a 

good performance under those 

conditions. However, what is 

important is that I won. I am 

still hoping to break the world 

record this summer.” 

She finished the competition 

having made only one jump as 

she cleared 4.65 metre at the 

first attempt. 

“You saw, yourself, that there 

was no sense at all to continue 

the competition,” explained 

her trainer, Vitaliy Petrov. Further 

jumps could have caused 

injuries. It was an ordinary 

competition and it was important 

that she won and managed 

to take her jumps before 

it began raining heavily. 

In Paris, Isinbaeva continued 

to enjoy her star status. 

American tourists in the Pullman 

Hotel recognised her and 

took photos with her, even in 

the lift. She said she was feeling 

OK explaining that the 

bandage on her knee was only 

there in case something re-occurred 

to her recently recovered 

injury. 

“Competing in Paris in front 

of my French fans is something 

special. Particularly 

when you are accommodated 

in the centre of the city and 

look out over the Eiffel Tower; 

it is just super,” said the Russian 

star with excitement. But 

Vitaliy Petrov understood that 

‘Golden League’ competitions 

bring with them a large psychological 

pressure as Elena 

is obliged to win all six tournaments 

in order to make a 

claim for the top prize. Whilst 

it is prestigious, of no less 

importance, are the financial 

rewards which are a big motivation 

for a jumper to continue 

with this technically difficult 

event. 

Petrov was extremely serious 

about the increasing danger 

of injuries when a jumper 

gets older. He explained that, 

when, after the summer competition 

in Berlin, they went for 

a change of air to Donetsk to 

do some light training, Elena’s

knee suddenly swelled up during 

simple warm up exercises. 

As Petrov said, under normal 

circumstances, they would 

have refused the next meeting 

in Oslo. This would have 

allowed them to avoid any additional 

risk Elena being seriously 

injured but she had to 

perform at every stage of the 

“ÅF Golden League” series in 

order to make a claim for the 

top prize. Petrov explained to 

Elena all about the difficulties 

Sergey Bubka had experienced 

despite having overcome all 

the difficulties of weather 

and judging at competitions. 

“She must be ready to leave 

the sport when she is thirty.” 

says Petrov. “Because the Pole 

Vault is such a very complicated 

event requiring a lot of 

effort, I remember that Bubka 

when he was still in good form 

literally began to fall apart. 

And it must be remembered 

that Elena trained as a gymnast 

from the very early age of 

four which is why, in addition 

to her sports injuries; she has 

also accumulated professional 

gymnastic injuries.” Isinbaeva 

herself said that she would 

quit competitions after the 

2013 World Championships in 

Moscow and devote her life to 

charity and creating a home. 

Petrov told us that Italian specialist 

doctors had helped to 

grow the worn gristle between 

the joints of her toes. Isinbaeva 

had been suffering from her 

gymnastic jumps. Permanent 

pressure had been placed on 

her toes during these jumps. 

This problem had re-appeared 

whilst training for the Pole 

Vault when, in the mornings, 

Elena could hardly get out of 

bed and stand on her feet. 

However, the Italian specialists 

assured her that with the help 

of a series of injections they 

could grow back the gristle. 

They said it wasn’t a problem 

and they had even managed to 

grow the gristle even between 

the discs of the vertebrae. 

This is one of the advantages 

of training in Formia where 

athletes are provided with all 

necessary modern medical 

aid. 

In Paris, everyone noticed 

Isinbaeva’s unusual new uniform 

and footwear from the 

Chinese company Li Ning. 

Elena had helped create her 

own line of sports wear giving 

ideas about colour and the positioning 

of logos. Petrov had 

also become involved in recommending 

the construction 

of the footwear of his pupil. 

According to him, the Chinese 

footwear that was created especially 

for Elena exceeded 

that which had been created 

by Adidas. Fifteen Chinese 

sports experts came to Isinbaeva 

in Formia. Each one was 

an expert in his own speciality 

of sports wear. It took them 

a few days to take measurements 

and study their client. 

The most important fact was 

event 

Photo Reuters 

that they managed to make 

nice spiked shoes. Two leading 

specialists who had worked for 

Nike and had been hired by 

the Chinese company helped 

very much. “They made the 

spikes we needed. The footwear 

should have a hard sole 

and strictly follow the shape 

of a woman’s foot taking into 

account her anatomy,” said 

Petrov. 

Ivan NIKOLAEV 


12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics 


Berlin ra

ces 

Organizing 

the World Championships 

The organizers of the World 

Championships listened to 

a lot of praise during the 

addresses. And, during the 

course of the preparation period 

for the Games, they did 

manage to resolve a number 

of difficult questions, in particular, 

where the race walking 

and marathon championships 

would be held. In the 

end, this practically required a 

second stadium. And, for the 

first time in the history of the 

world championships, a cultural 

center was established 

in Berlin, where from morn- 


ing till night, events themed 

to coincide with a particular 

athletics event were held. It 

was evident that the financial 

capabilities of the Berlin 

organizing committee were 

limited by the crisis which hit 

them unexpectedly and consequently 

they had to take some 

austere economic measures. 

Athletes, who lived in the main 

Championship hotel “Estrel”, 

complained bitterly about the 

transportation organisation 

which saw sportsmen, when 

hurrying to the stadium, literally 

storming buses, while 

dozens of brand new Toyotas 

idled for hours near the ho- 


event 

tel, where the championships’ 

VIP’s lived. Also, for the first 

time in the history of the 

championships, the press did 

not have a special bus service 

to take them from their hotels 

to the stadium, so journalists 

had to use public transport. 

The head of Organizing 

Committee, Heinrich Clausen, 

reported that the organisers 

had, at their disposal, a budget 

of 44 million Euros. Of 

this, 20 million had been received 

from the city authorities 

and the rest came from 

ticket sales, commercial projects 

and marketing. 

“Of course, this is a good 

budget for an Athletics World 

Championships” said Clausen 

in an interview for our magazine. 

“But we must admit that 

it is not that big. Approximately 

the same amount was spent 

on the opening ceremony of 

the football World Cup in Berlin. 

We had to work hard to 

stay within the budget. If there 

were more money, we certainly 

would have done some things 

differently. But the limited resources 

made our lives and 

work more interesting. The financial 

crisis made it difficult 

to get even this money out of 

our sponsors and partners, but 

the end result turned out well. 


Some problems arose from 

the fact that the competition 

took place at the Olympic stadium, 

which was built in the 

1930’s. Although it underwent 

a thorough renovation and got 

a modern electronic system, 

restorers could not make any 

material changes to the architecture. 

First of all, I am very pleased 

that this historic stadium was 

renovated, and we had the opportunity 

to hold our championships 

there,” said Clausen, 

“In this stadium, there is a 

fantastic competitive atmosphere. 

It was important that 

during the reconstruction the 

running track was saved: this 

track of an unusual blue colour 

became the symbol of 

our competition. We had to 

finish off some areas of the 

stadium. These included places 

for jumping, lighting rooms 

and waiting rooms where athletes 

waited for the start of 

the events. We also built some 

temporary structures. 

Undoubtedly, the biggest 

concern to the budget was 

that we could not completely 

fill the stadium with 70 thousand 

spectators.” Clausen explained 

that we had to spend 

most of the funds on advertising 

the competition, to let ev- 

eryone know where and when 

the Championships would be 

held. “We had a number of different 

advertising campaigns 

running throughout Germany,” 

said Clausen, “and we especially 

took care to present the 

Championships to Berlin. You 

can see that the entire city 

center has been covered with 

advertisements related to the 

Championships. The second 

largest item of expenditure 

was the accommodation, the 

feeding and the transportation 

of athletes, and setting up the 

infrastructure for the TV transmission 

of the Championships. 

All this took 80 per cent 

of our funds. In addition, there 

was a new budget item, which 

did not appear in other championships. 

This was the equipping 

of the second stadium, 

near the Brandenburg Gate 

required by the race walkers 

and marathon runners. This 

second stadium allowed us to 

bring the competition closer 

to the public.” 

When asked why the Brandenburg 

Gate was chosen 

for the second stadium as 

there were no large open areas 

nearby, Clausen said: 

“The Brandenburg Gate is a 

special place for Berliners; it 

is the traditional city centre. 

The whole life of the capital is 

concentrated around this area 

and it is famous throughout 

the world. First, we chose the 

Brandenburg Gate as a place 

for the race walking and marathon 

Championships, and then 

we decided to hold the cultural 

program there as well.” 

Based on his experiences in 

Berlin, Heinrich Clausen advised 

organizers of any future 

World Championships, including 

those in Moscow, to carefully 

calculate their finances 

and to work closely with the 

IAAF, doing exactly and nothing 

more than that which is 

required for the Championships. 

“I hope that athletics will 

remain in this stadium,” he 

said. “Although, next year, it is 

planned to hold athletic events 

in Berlin in a more modest stadium, 

there is a great deal of 

support for holding large athletic 

events in the Olympic stadium. 

This is a fantastic stadium 

in a fantastic city, where 

the whole population supports 

athletics.” 

Grete Waitz 

appeals to the World 

The legendary Norwegian 

runner Grete Waitz, the first 

woman world champion in the 

marathon, and nine times winner 

of the New York marathon 

came to the Championships 

in Berlin to promote the work 

of her Fund, which financed 

and promoted physical activity 

as a means of fighting 

cancer and other diseases. 

In Berlin, a partnership program 

between the Fund and 

Adidas was announced where 

Adidas, to support the Fund, 

had created an entire line of 

running equipment called the 

‘Grete Active Range’ with the 

slogan: ‘Activ mot kreft’ (Activity 

against Cancer), with 

unique designs and special 

colours. Revenue from the 

sale of products in this range 

would go to the Fund. Production 

first went on sale during 

the World Championships and

there was a special demand 

from amateur runners, seeking 

to purchase high quality 

equipment whilst, at the 

same time, contributing to a 

noble cause. 

“I want to encourage people 

to get involved in greater physical 

activity, thus reducing the 

risk of all diseases, not only 

cancer,” Waitz said in an interview 

for our magazine. “Our 

Fund is pleased to become 

Grete Waitz 

a partner of Adidas, a company 

well known for its quality 

and stability. From the money 

raised by this programme, we 

shall build fitness centers for 

people fighting cancer, like the 

one that was opened in 2008 

at the University Hospital in 

Oslo. In addition, we just want 

to let everyone know that physical 

activity will make their life 

a lot happier.” 

“Why did you personally decide 

to get involved with the fight 

against cancer?” 

“I had to confront the disease 

myself. After surgery in 2005, 

when I was still being treated 

with chemotherapy, doctors 

advised me to rest more and 

avoid stress, I followed their 

advice, and consequently, for 

almost two months, I did not 

get out of bed and felt very depressed: 

I had no strength left, 

I was crushed. Nevertheless, I 

forced myself to return to a 

normal life. I was inspired by 

the famous American cyclist, 

Lance Armstrong, who beat the 

serious illness and returned to 

his sport. I received an email 

from him encouraging me, 

after which, for the first time 

in a long time, I took my first 

initial steps on a treadmill. At 

first, I had only enough energy 

to run a couple of miles. However, 

I, immediately, felt like a 

different person and decided 

to increase the work regime. 

I resumed running, and once 

more, felt happy. That is why 

I took an active part in establishing 

the first Center for 

Physical Activity for cancer patients 

in Norway.” 

“But even before your illness 

you were an active advocate of 

running.” 

“I have always been interested 

in the problem of mass 

physical activity, even when I 

was an active athlete. That is 

why having retired from athletics 

I thought it was my duty 

to inspire other people to get 

involved in active sport. We 

live in a society where it is 

possible not to get involved in 

anything physical at all: there 

is nothing to motivate people 

to be active. The main danger 

to our health comes from the 

sedentary lifestyle that has 

spread through our society. 

Based on my experience, I can 

say that being active not only 

keeps healthy persons healthy, 

but it also helps sick people 

get healthy.” 

“Remind me, please, how your 

sports career developed?” 

“I started in international 

competition in 1970 and lasted 

for two decades. For about the 

first 10 years, I ran on tracks 

and then I ran both marathons 

on highways and cross country. 

I confess, I would not have run 

the marathon, if the Olympics 

and major championships had 

included a similar event in the 

woman’s long-distance track 

programme. But it was in the 

marathon where I achieved the 

greatest success.” 

“What events stand out as the 

most memorable?” 

“On the track, probably the 

most memorable was the 1977 

World Cup. Whilst I appreciate 

all five victories in the world 

cross-country championships, 

probably the most memorable 

was the first World Championships 

in 1983 in Helsinki. However 

the most memorable race 

of all must be my first victory 

at the New York Marathon.” 

“Is it easier for women to perform 

women’s long distance 

races and marathons today 

and if given the choice what era 

would you have chosen for your 

career?” 

event 

“It is difficult to say whether 

it was easier or harder in the 

1970/80’s than it is today. 

Each era has its pluses and 

minuses. Now, of course, 

coaches and runners have 

much more knowledge about 

running than we had. This is a 

great advantage, which we did 

not have. But I’m happy that I 

ran in those years. I competed 

against many prominent athletes. 

On the track, my main 

rivals were runners from Eastern 

Europe and the USSR, 

whilst, in the marathon, I competed 

against such stars as 

Joan Benoit, Lisa Martin, Rosa 

Mota, Ingrid Kristiansen.” 

”Was it easy for you to stop 

racing?” 

“For me, it was very simple. 

Can you imagine how tired I 

was of running after 20 years 

of racing! I no longer felt the 

desire to participate. Age also 

prompted me to hang up my 

running shoes.” 

“Have you ever had the desire 

to return to racing?” 

“I walked away from competitive 

racing entirely; even local 

competitions for veterans. But 

I continue to run every day; 

exercising. This has now been 

included into my lifestyle. As 

a rule, I run for an hour in the 

mornings.” 

“What did you mostly get from 

sport?” 

“I learnt how to dedicate 

myself entirely. I learnt how 

to be disciplined, to set goals 



and to work towards their 

implementation. In my situation, 

I was thankful that I was 

a female athlete, and, it was 

through finding the qualities 

of a sportsperson that I was 

able to overcome serious disease.” 

“How do you feel about drug 

disclosures in modern sport? 

“I take all those doping 

scandals that shock world 

athletics from time to time, in 

my stride. They indicate to me 

that the policing of those who 

try to deceive everyone is being 

carried out properly.” 

“By profession, you are a 

teacher of Physical Education. 

Have you ever managed to work 

in this field?” 

“I left a teaching in 1980 

and never returned to it. After 

leaving athletics I never 


Asafa Powell 

and Tyson Gay 

‘worked’ anywhere. I dedicated 

myself to helping other 

people become involved in 

physical activity; to start distance 

running and walking to 

improve their health. In Norway, 

I have my own running 

race for women called “Mileage 

Grete Waitz”. This race 

once attracted 40 thousand 

women. It can be said that 

even after I ended my sports 

career, I remained in running. 

It continued to be a part of 

my life as before.” 

The Deposit 

on Drinks Cleans 

the Olympic Stadium 

The German authorities 

managed to teach their citizens 

to be clean and not throw 

away unwanted beer bottle and 

water bottle empties wherever 

they felt like it. Unlike Moscow, 

during the World Championships 

in Berlin, there was 

not a single, discarded empty 

bottle to be found. The streets 

and parks were cleaned by introducing 

a refundable cash 

deposit on glass and plastic 

bottles. 

The not-so-wealthy Germans 

have now started collecting 

empty bottles to earn a few 

extra Euros for a beer. 

This was particularly noticeable 

at the Olympic stadium 

where after the competition 

some spectators collected, in 

exchange for the deposit, plastic 

beer mugs that had been 

left on the stands from beer 

which had been sold from 

hundreds of kiosks directly 

underneath the stands. Beer 

was sold in such abundance 

that it flowed like a river, and 

it appeared that the spectators 

at the stadium were at a 

picnic, regularly going to refill 

their glasses. In order to 

maintain cleanliness at the 

stadium, an especially large 

deposit on beer mugs was in- 

Usain Bolt 

inspects his 

200 metres 

World Record 

troduced. For a beer mug costing 

3.70 Euros, the deposit 

was 1.30 Euros making the 

cost of a beer 5 Euros. For a 

small bottle of water, the deposit 

was 50 cents. Of course, 

to avoid the deposit it was always 

possible to hand in an 

empty bottle when a new one 

was purchased. 

Now every morning, the poor 

and unemployed people of 

the German capital, find their 

way to places where they can 

expect to find empty bottles. 

This is the way that some Berliners 

earn their living. They 

have been joined in this occupation 

by local children. There 

are well-known localities, such 

as the Olympic stadium, where 

the deposit is especially large 

and it is possible to bring beer 

mugs from other places here 

and get more money. 

At the World Championships, 

beer consumption in 

the Olympic stadium, reached 

a record level. Sometimes the 

vendors could not keep up with 

consumption, because, unlike 

a football match, the drinking

was not just for the two hours 

of the match but it started 

from the morning competition 

and carried on all day. The 

drinking reached a peak when 

the most exciting finals started 

such as the women’s high 

jump in which local favourite 

Ariane Friedrich was jumping. 

At the time of this event, there 

were no vacant seats available 

in the whole of the stadium. 

Jamaica Throws 

down the Gauntlet 

to the Superpowers 

For the first time in the history 

of the World Championships, 

the spotlight before the 

event was not on the leading 

athletics nation, the USA, but 

on the national team of the 

tiny island state of Jamaica. It 

was anticipated that Jamaica 

could squeeze the USA from 

its traditional position as the 

leading sprint nation. As soon 

as their plane hit the ground, 

reporters rushed to attend a 

meeting with Usain Bolt. This 

meeting would create a stir 

in the world of athletics. This 

time, all other athletic stars 

were in his shadow. 

At the first Berlin press conference, 

Usain was as laconic 

as always, and made his usual 

statement, once again telling 

the public about his desire to 

become ‘a legend of the sprint 

world’ but this time his every 

word was listened to attentively. 

Everybody was looking 

forward to the long-awaited 

showdown with American Tyson 

Gay and his countryman 

Asafa Powell. 

After Bolt, the President 

of Athletics Federation of Jamaica, 

Howard Aris, dropped 

a bombshell by saying that the 

Jamaican Federation wanted to 

exclude from the World Championships 

all those athletes 

who had violated the rules by 

not attending the final training 

session before the championship 

in Nuremberg. But the 

IAAF persuaded Jamaica not 

to carry out this threat. 

The IAAF management 

asked the Federation of Jamaica 

not to use the World 

Championships as a means of 

punishing athletes, who had 

not fulfilled their obligations. 

Moreover, the IAAF President, 

Lamine Diack, took the situation 

so closely to heart that 

he personally met the national 

athletics team of Jamaica and 

explained the IAAF position 

to them. All noted that never 

before, on the eve of a World 

Championships, had the President 

of the IAAF spoken to 

any specific team. This again 

emphasised the importance 

of the Jamaican athletes in 

Berlin. Experts did not even 

exclude the possibility that the 

number of gold medals won by 

Jamaica could equal those of 

the United States. Now coaches 

from American colleges 

and universities are happy to 

fight for prospective athletes 

imported from the Caribbean. 

At the same time, Jamaica is 

not against this policy. 

The President of the Federation 

of Jamaica, said in Berlin: 

“Yes, a number of our leading 

Shelley-Ann 

Fraser and 

Kerron 

Stewart 


Bolt is awarded the Berlin wall 

This year, Berlin, celebrates 

the 20 anniversary 

of the fall of the dividing 

Wall and the reunification 

of the two Germanys. The 

main topic of conversation 

in the stands, during 

the World Championships, 

was the wall. A thick red 

line had been drawn on 

all tourists’ maps showing 

where the wall used to be. 

Exhibitions were organised 

in the most crowded parts 

of the city describing the 

dark days when the city 

was divided into two. 

Organizers of the championship 

were so impressed 

by the achievements of Usain Bolt that they decided 

to give him one of the fragments of concrete from the 

wall. The mayor of the city, Klaus Wowereit, at a ceremony 

in the Berlin Club of Champions, gave Bolt a unique souvenir 

- a block of wall from a part of the wall that used to divide 

Potsdamer Platz. On it a modern artist of Leipzig had 

painted, using an aerosol, a portrait of Bolt setting the 100 

meters world record. The block was 3.60 meters tall, 1.20 

meters wide and weighed 2.7 tons. So, for the first time, a 

significant fragment of a historical monument would cross 

the Atlantic and end up in Jamaica. In response, Bolt, with 

the gift in the background, posed with the mayor of the 

city for a long time and spoke in praise of the hosts of the 

Championships. However, it was evident that he was somewhat 

confused, in that, he didn’t know where, in his house, 

to install this masterpiece of German art. 



athletes live and train in the 

United States, but it does not 

create any problems as we are 

not going to monitor our athletes 

in the U.S.; we only try 

to influence them. They have 

complete freedom of action. 

They must only bear responsibility 

if they violate our rules. 

Fortunately, Jamaican athletes 

are not star struck. For example, 

Usain Bolt arrived at 

the training camp before the 

start of the World Championship 

and trained there with everyone, 

without requiring any 

special conditions.” 

Today, every teenager in Jamaica 

and other Caribbean 

islands, dreams of becoming 

a celebrity through athletics. 

They start running as 

early as 8-10 years old when 

they are in junior school, and 

in their teens, the recruiters 

come from the United States 

looking for prospective candidates. 

“You ask whether we 

have a lot of athletes like Bolt; 

tall and fast. If you come to 

the school championships of 

Jamaica, you will see a great 

many talented youngsters,” 

proudly explained journalists 

from Jamaica. 

For their part, at the American 

team’s press conference, 

their management said that 

this was the strongest national 

team in the history of American 

sport, and they were going 

to win between 26 and 30 

medals. In retrospect, they 

failed to achieve this target 

taking ‘only’ 23. 

Every one was impressed 

by the enthusiasm and confidence 

of Americans who arrived 

in Berlin with the slogan 

“Repeat the Achievements of 

Jesse Owens.” It is well known 

that in the 1936 Olympics in 

Berlin he won four gold medals. 

Subsequently, American 

sprinters have repeatedly set 

world records in Berlin. 

“I performed in Berlin 40 

years after Jesse won his 

medals here, and we are 

again mindful of his achievements,” 

said the head of the 


Valeriy Borchin 

men’s team, former, famous 

sprinter Harvey Glance. “It is 

wonderful to come here now 

as a coach. Because we have 

so many great athletes, we 

are entitled to fight for gold 

in the 4x100 meter relay, despite 

Usain Bolt. We are not 

under any great pressure from 

athletes from the Caribbean 

Islands, but we do admit that 

these other countries have 

made progress in sprinting. 

In the relay race we will have 

to be more concentrated, so 

that we can control our speed 

better. Even when I was the 

captain of the relay team, we 

never aimed for anything less 

than a gold medal, though, of 

course, sport has changed a 

lot since those times. Unlike 

today when the boys are competing 

for cash, we fought for 

glory and were proud of our 

victories. 

A Walker’s Weekend 

Berlin was filled with anticipation 

at the approaching 

duels in the Memorial Olympic 

stadium as the Brandenburg 

Gate arena was called. And by 

noon on August 15, spectators 

began to move to the Brandenburg 

Gate, where the first final; 

the men’s 20 km walk was to 

be held. Here, alongside the 

walking course, the cultural 

program was taking place. 

There were more than enough 

fans and passers-by to view 

the programme because the 

area around the Brandenburg 

Gate was the most crowded 

place in the city; the heart of 

the city, just a stone’s throw 

from the renovated Reichstag 

and modern Potsdamer Platz, 

with its rich samples of German 

architecture representing 

the free, new world. 

During this weekend the 

area around the Brandenburg 

Gate was extremely crowded. 

It seemed that the whole of 

Germany had come in large 

numbers to listen and look at, 

over a glass of beer, the masters 

of race walking competing. 

The race had been held 

in the morning last time to 

avoid the heat of the day but 

the organizers of competition 

specifically held the race at 

one o’clock in order to attract 

more visitors who had awoken 

late on their day off. By starting 

later, when the temperature 

was around 26 degrees 

Centigrade and the sun was 

very hot, there was no chance 

of a world record. 

But, so high was their 

adrenalin charge to win, that 

Russians Valeriy Borchin and 

Olga Kaniskina, the eventual 

winners, did not pay attention 

to the fact that they were deprived 

of the opportunity of 

earning one hundred thousand 

dollars for setting a world re- 

cord. Perhaps, it was only after 

they came home that they 

regretted not having taken all 

they could from Berlin. 

The main boulevard of 

the city, Unter den Linden, 

which was part of the course 

turned into one big beer garden, 

where people could get 

recharged with either beer or 

hard drinks. 

The Russian team was very 

discreet with no one having a 

pre-event press conference. 

The athletes and trainers did 

not need it. Russia’s walkers 

intensively trained in a park 

near the hotel, satisfying the 

requirements of the doping 

control authorities. But, during 

the first race, it was soon 

clear that the top walkers of 

the Russian team were as 

strong as ever. 

At around the 15 km mark, in 

the men’s 20 km race, Valeriy 

Borchin strode away from the 

group where he had been hiding 

and confidently took the 

lead, and few had any doubts, 

we were looking at a new world 

champion. It is clear that, on 

the day, Borchin’s abilities were 

greater than those of his competitors. 

He would go on to beat 

the second placed walker, Chinaman 

Wang Hao, by one minute 

and twenty five seconds. 

“I am delighted that the 

complicated 2009 year ended 

well for me” was the first thing 

the world champion said, adding 

that he has still a long 

way to go before reaching the 

heights of his walking idols 

Robert Korzeniowski and Jefferson 

Pérez. 

Even more convincing was 

the victory of Olga Kaniskina, 

who precisely followed the instructions 

of her coach, forcing 

herself not jump into the 

lead during the first five kilometers 

and only after that 

opening up and ‘strolling’ 

down ‘Unter den Linden’, a 

considerable distance ahead 

of her followers. She would 

say afterwards that the pace 

of all the segments of the race 

was less than she was used to

during speed training and that 

she was not stretched. “I felt 

so good today, that the weather 

did not bother me,” said 

Kaniskina. “Of course, when, 

because of the heat, coach 

Viktor Chegin decided I should 

not start off walking flat out, 

all hopes of a record were immediately 

lost. But everything 

went according to plan, and I 

was not afraid of the judges; 

they have always favoured 

me. After all, I am constantly 

trying to improve my walking 

technique and doing everything 

possible to ensure that it 

does not deteriorate. I do not 

know why, but I have always 

been lured by a gold medal 

and, after the Olympics, I was 

even more desirous of winning 

gold in Berlin. All of my 

victories are very different and 

so beautiful and everywhere 

there has been something that 

helped me win.” 

Olga said that perhaps 

Borchin’s winner’s bouquet 

which he had given to her 

brought her luck. But then 

Olga had a dilemma, which of 

the two favorites in the 50 km 

walk would she hand on her 

winner’s bouquet to. It seemed 

that Denis Nizhegorodov and 

Sergey Kirdyapkin 

Sergey Kirdyapkin had equal 

chances to win. 

Connoisseurs of athletics 

consider that the 50 km walk, 

the longest distance in the 

program, is the most exciting 

event. This is especially true 

when anything can happen 

to an athlete during this killing 

race. But who would have 

imagined that the lead walker, 

Nizhegorodov, would suddenly 

leave the race to run to the 

toilet and then, afterwards, 

would lag considerably behind 

the leaders? Jumping out of 

the plastic booth, he immediately 

suggested to Kirdyapkin 

who was plodding along in accordance 

with his own plan. 

”Let’s catch up with the Australians!” 

But Sergey refused, 

saying that he is not yet ready 

to accelerate. And Denis in the 

heat of battle, rushed to catch 

up with the leaders alone but 

during his pursuit he ended up 

with a stitch and finally had to 

retire from the race. 

He walked himself and the 

two Australian walkers, Luke 

Adams and Jared Tallent, into 

the ground. Australian Jared 


Olga Kaniskina 

Tallent, who had the best time 

after 35 and 40 kilometres, 

was rolled back to seventh 

place. Kirdyapkin broke away 

during the last few kilometers, 

beating the Norwegian, Trond 

Nymark by almost three minutes! 

It was clear to the spectators 

watching this extreme 

test of endurance what a critical 

state the walkers were in. 

They were sick, had cramps, 

and were sweating profusely. 

Kirdyapkin avoided the shower 

on the way round which had 

been installed en route because 

it was too warm for him 

and instead poured chilled 

drinking water over himself. 

Sergey literally collapsed at 

the finish line and fell onto a 

carriageway of Berlin. Later 

he would explain that his 

cramped legs gave up. 

“Concerning the toughest 

moment of the race, it was 

when I realised that Nizhegorodov 

and two Australian walkers 

(Luke Adams and Jared Tallent) 

were far in front of me. 

Then I felt the Norwegian (silver 

medalist Trond Nymark) 

practically stepping on my feet 



from behind and I had to speed 

up. That was really tough but, 

in the end, it all worked out for 

me.” said Kirdyapkin, explaining 

that the success of Saransk 

walkers was due to coach Viktor 

Chegin’s school and the patronage 

of the President of the 

Republic of Mordovia, Nikolay 

Merkushkin. 

On the Road 

to Becoming a Legend 

Perhaps it was only after 

the World Championships that 

Usain Bolt realized he should 

have also learnt to master the 

long jump. Then he could have 

repeated the feat of Jesse 

Owens in Berlin 


in 1936. But even without the 

long jump, Bolt managed to 

achieve the highest accolades 

setting two world records, 

deeply shocking his rivals, and 

winning three gold medals, 

whilst all the time saying that 

he was in a worse shape than 

at the Olympics in Beijing and 

that he failed to get a world 

record for the 4x100 relay because, 

by the end of the competition 

he was too tired. 

Following the recommendations 

of his consultants, Bolt 

did his best to present himself 

as a superstar. At the start of 

the final of the 100 meters, 

other athletes tried to play the 

same game as him, making 

faces at the camera and trying 

to behave in a joking way. But, 

on the starting line up, there 

was an air of nervous excitement. 

Bolt was trying to relax, 

and, despite all the hype 

that had been created by the 

media about his personality, 

once he got down to his starting 

blocks, he also felt the tension 

of the moment. Next to 

him was the menacing, 

American, Tyson Gay. 

However, after the 

semi-finals, it had 

become apparent 

to onlookers that 

Bolt was ready 

for a world 

record, and 

there was 

nobody 

equal to 

him in 

Berlin. 

But 

no- 

body 

forecast such an 

impressive world record. 

When the racing machines 

burst from their blocks, Bolt, 

pushed by Asafa Powell and 

Gay, without any visible effort, 

Anna Rogowska 

brought the world record down 

to 9.58 seconds. “When I led 

the race after 50 meters, I realized 

that I had won because 

it was going to be very difficult 

for anyone to overtake me as 

the latter part of my race is 

the best part of my run” he 

would say later. “This season I 

started my training a little bit 

late because I got involved in a 

stupid car accident.” 

At the finish of the race, the 

Usain Bolt show began. He repeated 

over and over again his 

famous ‘arrow’ gesture to the 

applause of the public. A sort 

of mass hysteria took hold of 

the stadium and thousands 

of fans of the athlete refused 

to leave the arena even after 

the event had finished and 

continued to yell enthusiastically. 

Bolt made long leisurely 

rounds of all the TV commentators, 

gave interviews, as well 

as posing for and communicating 

with his fans. Part of 

his fame even rubbed off on 

the bronze medalist, Asafa 

Powell, who was also honored 

like a champion. Powell would 

Elena Isinbaeva 

later admit that he was not 

ready to challenge Usain. 

“I am glad that such a runner 

like Bolt appeared and I’m 

pleased with this out-of-thisworld 

record, which, unfortunately, 

was not set by me” 

said silver medalist Tyson 

sadly who had got a good look 

at the back of the athlete that 

finished in front of him. 

The President of the IAAF 

specially came to the press 

conference to announce that 

Bolt was the fastest man in 

the world, the new face of 

world athletics, and, in general, 

a good person. Usain 

disagreed with the statement 

that he was perfection itself, 

and assured everyone that he 

needed more years of work to 

achieve the status of a great 

athlete. 

“I was a little bit worried 

about how well prepared my 

rivals were and so I began 

the race with only victory on 

mind” said Bolt “But I was 

lucky in that I had a good start 

and from then on everything 

just fell into place. I’m proud

of myself, because such grandiose 

events help create the 

impression of greatness in the 

sport and they allow us to go 

on enjoying life thanks to our 

sponsors. Now I’m going to invest 

all my efforts into the 200 

meters. I have spent the whole 

year practicing and know what 

I need to do to get the necessary 

burst of speed. I have no 

doubts left about my current 

form, although throughout the 

course of the season I have 

run indifferently. I am enjoying 

the World Championships. 

The whole day before the 

200 metre finals Usain sat in 

his hotel room, amusing himself 

by playing video games. 

He had for a long time been 

aware that this activity takes 

away any anxious thoughts 

he holds about an impending 

race. Both mentally and physically, 

it has been harder to run 

in Berlin than in Beijing. But, 

at the same time, he had a 

better idea of what to do: the 

main thing was to get a good 

start. He then shocked even 

himself by breaking the world 

record again by an amount 

that exceeded even the boldest 

predictions. When he saw 

his time of 19.19 on the results 

board, he was very surprised 

but then he urged spectators 

to celebrate the record 

with him. 

At the subsequent press 

conference and for the first 

time ever, Bolt elaborated on 

the reason for his rapid progress 

since the finals of the 

2005 World Championships 

in Helsinki, when he was only 

eighth. “At that time of every 

year I got injured on a regular 

basis, and, in Helsinki, I 

almost dropped out because 

of muscle spasms. Then I 

changed my coach, and, today, 

I train under the world’s 

best, Glenn Mills. In the 2007 

200 metres World Championships, 

I was overtaken by 

Tyson Gay. In that year, I did 

not feel strong enough so 

when I got home, I began to 

work hard on my strength and 

speed endurance. Now I try 

not to set any limits, but simply 

run at full strength, and 

the records seem to appear by 

themselves.” 

Someone thought that Bolt 

is going to be representative 

of athletes of the future. At 

the start of the race, in the 

line up, he gives the impression 

of being twice the size of 

other sprinters with a height of 

nearly two meters and being 

very broad in the shoulders. 

They simply have no chance 

against such a huge person. 

This height coupled with his 

speed produces wonders on 

the race track. 

In Berlin, we saw another 

unique personality from Jamaica 

in the form of Shelly- 

Ann Fraser, who has already 

been nicknamed “the Usain 

Bolt of women’, although, unlike 

her teammate, her height 

is only 160 centimeters and 

she weighs a mere 52 kilograms. 

But this ‘bird’ ran the 

100 meters in 10.73! Second, 

only two hundredths of a sec- 

ond behind, was her compatriot, 

Kerron Stewart in a 

personal best time. Shelly-Ann 

admitted that she was so worried 

before the race that she 

had problems with her stomach. 

But, she has grown so ac- 

Ariane Friedrich 

Blanka Vlašic 

customed to having stomach 

pains before each event that 

now she uses a special tea to 

relieve them. 

“As for our Bolt, I sometimes 

think that this guy is not a human 

being at all” she said, 

when they started to compare 

her with Usain. 

Flight Trajectories 

and Jumping Tragedies 

Jumping suffered irreparable 

damage in Berlin when 

the main star of women’s 

program, Elena Isinbaeva was 

eliminated after she failed 

to jump her opening height. 

What took place, for all to 

see, was a disastrous last attempt 

at 4.80 metres. She 

failed to jump that height after 

she had moved the bar to 

4.80 metres, having failed her 

opening height of 4.75 metres 

twice. Whatever was to happen 

subsequently that day 

would be influenced by these 

catastrophic events. At the 

press conference, the Polish 

champion, Anna Rogowska, 

and the pair who shared silver, 

American Chelsea Johnson 

and another Pole, Monika 

Pyrek, spoke more about Isinbaeva 

than about their own 

performances. There was no 



gloating in their words. On her fall from grace along with 

the contrary, they maintained the collapsing bar must have 

Isinbaeva’s credibility by try- seemed like a nightmare. In 

ing to persuade reporters that fact, she was so ashamed of 

her defeat was an accident the failure, that she dared not 

that could have happened to approach her coach, whom she 

anybody. 

thought she had failed. So she 

“I am very surprised that then went to the assembled 

a jump of 4.75 metres was reporters to try, along with 

enough to win gold, because them, to figure out what had 

Elena was such a firm favor- gone wrong. Someone said she 

ite, and she remains the best did not have enough speed on 

in the world. She is the only the runway during the unsuc- 

woman who has done the alcessful attempts while othmost 

impossible and jumped ers felt that she had only to 

higher than five meters” said slightly correct her technique. 

the new cham- Meanwhile she insisted that 

pion. 

she did not understand why 

Isinbaeva it had happened and blamed 

demonstrated only herself, believing she had 

that she was recently been paying too little 

able to main- attention to her main occupatain 

her self tion. Elena vowed 

respect de- that she would 

spite the start again, fully 

fact that 

dedicate herself 

to training 

and not get distracted. 

She said 

that currently she 

was on her best form 

and during warm up she 

easily jumped 4.70 metres, 

which influenced her to 

order 4.75 metres as her 

initial height. A few days 

later in Zurich, she would 

set a new world record of 

5.06 metres. Perhaps it 

has become more difficult 

for her to focus on such an 

important jump because 

she, subconsciously, is 

not as hungry to win as 

she has already won 

everything and 

got the largest 

sponsorship 

contracts. 

By an incredible 

coincidence, bad luck 

caught up with the other Russian 

jumpers, each of whom 

could have claimed gold. Just 

before leaving for Berlin SvetlanaFeofanova 

revealed 

Yaroslav Rybakov a fracture 

which she 

got at a 

competition 


Berlin kept alive 

“the momentum of 

Beijing” 

The organizers of the World 

Championships received the 

highest praise from the IAAF 

leadership. At the final press 

conference, IAAF President, 

Lamine Diack, was evidently 

very happy with what he had 

seen in Berlin: 

“In the Olympic arena, we witnessed some great performances. 

Three world records and nine championship’s records 

were set along with 19 world seasons best results. 

This tournament was marked by some excellent performances 

from the German team whilst, in the stands, over a 

million spectators visited the Games. Final results have yet 

to be analysed, but, even now, we can say that these Championships 

were a great success and we thank the Berlin authorities 

for their assistance. We have supported and, even, 

strengthened the momentum created by the Beijing Olympics, 

and Usain Bolt has become a most popular athlete. 

Skeptics, who repeatedly told us of the decline of athletics, 

have been disgraced. In Germany alone, 10 million people 

watched the men’s 100 meters final and women’s high jump 

on television. And a special atmosphere was created in the 

city by the “Cultural Centre” at the Brandenburg Gate. I have 

no words of reproach for the Organizing Committee”. 

Diack said that prior to the Championships, there had 

been a concern that they would not be able to fill the stadium, 

but that problem had disappeared. Athletes from more 

than 200 countries took part in the Championships. 

The Head of the IAAF Competitions Department, Paul 

Hardy, also praised the Berlin Championships. 

“In a changing world, we too must change and we must 

change the way we present athletics to the public. We’re 

permanently working on the competition programme. My 

colleague, Heinrich Clausen of the Berlin tournament organizers 

suggested that a competition for the race walkers and 

marathon runners was held outside the Olympic stadium. I 

was the director of the World Championships in Edmonton, 

Canada, when a similar suggestion was also put forward but, 

at that time, it was rejected. So you can see that the world 

of sport has changed over the past eight years. Heinrich’s 

team convinced us that it would be a good idea to move 

the competitions to the Brandenburg Gate. Consequently we 

were able to engage local citizens and tourists in our Championships 

and create a new image for our sport”. 

in Paris. Yuliya Golubchikova 

was in fine form but failed to 

make the final because of a 

severe muscle spasm. Tatyana 

Polnova nearly lost her upper 

teeth when she tried to 

brush her teeth on the bar 

at 4.55 metres. With her upper 

lip bleeding, and in severe 

pain, the athlete was unable to 

come to her senses after such 

a severe shock. 

But, in the high jump, there 

was a long-awaited victory for 

Croatian, Blanka Vlašic. The 

new dance she had prepared 

for the Championships came 

in handy to celebrate her successful 

attempts. On the eve 

of the competition, Blanka

held one of her longest ever 

press conferences, where she 

explained her understanding 

of the challenges she was 

facing. 

“It was easier when I did not 

have any titles or a world status 

to defend. Over the years, 

it is becoming increasingly 

more difficult to stay on top; 

I am being attacked from all 

sides. But I do not think that 

I failed at the Olympics, where 

I jumped 2.05. At the final 

Golden League competition 

in Brussels, I was both physically 

and mentally very tired, 

but, I was able to jump better. 

Everything that has happened 

to me has been for a reason 

even the losses have made me 

stronger. One of my friends 

gave me this advice ‘Do not 

fight with yourself, turn yourself 

into your partner, learn 

to synchronize your thoughts 

and movements, if you take 

the best from other athletes, 

then they will also help you.’ I 

realize that one can not allow 

a third party opinion to affect 

my jumping. And one more 

thing: ‘do everything a step at 

a time, do not skip ahead.’ This 

summer, I was unlucky with 

the weather, jumped at half of 

my ability, but I enjoyed every 

moment of my jumping, because 

athletics for me is more 

than just the event. 

The World Championships 

brought Blanka two surprises. 

First, she did not think that 

2.04 metres was enough for 

victory; she had been preparing 

to jump 2.08 metres or 

even higher. Secondly, Blanka 

did not count on such a strong 

performance from the Russian, 

Anna Chicherova, who 

pushed the competition favorite 

German, Ariane Friedrich 

into third place. 

Still recovering from an 

unsuccessful operation, 

Chicherova showed remarkable 

resilience. She had to 

jump with a bandaged leg and 

constantly deaden the pain. 

Theoretically, Anna has to have 

a second operation because 

the ligaments in her lead leg 

have become inflamed and 

complications have arisen in a 

tendon in her takeoff foot. According 

to her, she would have 

been able to jump 2.04 metres, 

if her running technique 

at the decisive moment did 

not fail and she would not be 

able to use all her jump speed 

successfully. 

During her speech, Friedrich 

said “There was too much psychological 

pressure put on me. 

But the contest turned out well 

and I’m happy to get a bronze 

medal at my first World Championships. 

However, according to 

Chicherova, the problem was 

that Ariane went into the competition 

too confidently. Even 

the incredible support she received 

from a fully packed stadium 

did not help her. All the 

jumpers thanked the audience 

for the positive energy that 

was radiated and that helped 

them all. 

The winner of the men’s 

high jump Yaroslav Rybakov 

also complained of injuries. 

After selection at the National 

Championship, his Achilles 

tendon became so painful that 

he could neither run nor jump. 

It was only in Berlin that Yaroslav 

was able to complete the 

necessary training. There, he 

managed to get the muscles to 

respond using a “stress” technique 

and he, further, managed 

to correct his jumping 

technique. Yaroslav acknowledged 

that such events carry 

too much emotional strain 

when the jump literally disintegrates 

from thoughts swirling 

around inside the brain. 

In addition, he had a twitching 

pain from an injured foot. 

“I was in my best shape during 

the winter of 2005 when I 

was in Madrid for the European 

Indoor Championships. There, 

I have managed to control my 

jumping, clearing 2.38 metres 

for a silver medal. I think that 

this long-awaited victory will 

help me get rid of my tension” 

said Rybakov. 

Steven Hooker 

There were high expectations 

of the male pole vaulters 

in Berlin; all wanted see Olympic 

champion and captain of 

the Australian team, Steven 

Hooker take on the new star 

of French pole vaulting, Renaud 

Lavillenie. However on the 

day, the 21st August, a strong 

wind started to blow in Berlin 

and this would slow down the 

athletes on the runway. In addition, 

Hooker revealed an injury, 

which was so serious that 

before the competition his 

trainer Alexander Parnov had 

to have a talk with the athlete, 

cautioning him not to exert 

himself. “Steve, please listen 

to your body, because if you 

aggravate this injury, it could 

cost you dearly next year. Decide 

for yourself during the 

competition how to proceed.” 

event 

said Parnov to his pupil. So 

Hooker, in order to save himself 

and following Isinbaeva’s 

example, was the last to join 

the competition at 5.85 metres. 

Parnov is sure that Steven 

is capable of smashing 

Sergey Bubka’s world record; 

however, injury and the weather 

conditions deprived him of 

the chance to make this historic 

flight in Berlin. Hooker’s 

first attempt failed, and so he 

moved the bar to 5.90 metres 

which he jumped at his first 

attempt and this made him 

the champion. 

He refused to continue to 

jump. The wind was even more 

of an obstacle for the lightweight 

Lavillenie, who was 

third after his teammate Romain 

Mesnil. 

Vitaliy SEMENOV 


history 

The charisma of 

Primo 

The road to world fame 

The European Athletics Outdoor 

Premium Meeting called 

Meeting of Turin – Memorial 

Primo Nebiolo was held for 

the tenth time in Turin at the 

beginning of June 2008. 

The competition marked the 

tenth anniversary of Primo 

Nebiolo’s death. He was the 

man, whose fate it was to 

change the world of athletics 

beyond all recognition. Primo 

was an athlete, an organiser, 

a politician, a businessman, 

and even a journalist. He once 

worked on the newspaper 

“Popolo Nuovo” published in 

Piedmont. 

“He was an indestructible 

leader. Primo knew how to obtain 

the best from everybody; 

athletes, subordinates and 

even sponsors. He was deeply 

in love with sport but athletics 

became his first love” says, his 

wife, Giovanna Nebiolo, about 

her husband. 

Nebiolo was born on the 

14th July 1923 in Turin. In 

1939, at the age of 16, Primo 

took part in his first school 

competition in the 100 metres 

sprint and the long jump which 

was to become his preferred 

event. One year later he got 

his first pair of spikes which 

was then a piece of unprecedented 

luxury. The war intervened 

to terminate his sports 

career for a few years. In 1943 

he joined the partisans and in 


Nebiolo 

1944 he was arrested by the 

Germans but he managed to 

escape and carried on fighting 

in Monferrato with the partisans. 

On the 25th April 1945, 

the 22 year old Primo joined 

the leadership of the committee 

for the national liberation 

in Piedmont. 

Although it was quite a 

high position for so young a 

man but he did not remain in 

politics after the war. Primo 

immediately returned to athletics 

and carried on performing 

the long jump until 1950. 

He adored his sport though 

he did not become a great 

athlete. Nebiolo graduated 

as a professional lawyer and 

successfully involved himself 

in the family construction 

business. His company built 

roads and bridges in a war 

torn Italy. In those years, he 

had a very bright future and, 

except for his love of sports, 

he had the ability to have 

easily become a billionaire 

or influential politician. Primo 

forsook the race for big 

money and chose a career of 

a sports manager. More than 

money, he was attracted to 

being in the world’s limelight, 

being able to communicate 

as an equal with heads of 

state and crown personages. 

Nebiolo was around the same 

age and a close friend of another 

great Italian, Gianni 

Agnelli, who chose a different 

way and became the head 

of the Fiat Empire. Together 

they founded a university 

sports club of which Primo 

remained the President until 

he died. 

His career as a sports functionary 

began in 1948 in Turin 

when he headed the local 

student’s sports council. By 

1961, a 38 year old Nebiolo 

became the head of the International 

University Sports Federation 

after, at his initiative, 

a successful World Student 

Games, had been held in Turin 

in 1959. By 1969, he had 

also become the President of 

the Italian Athletics Federation, 

a position he held until 

1989. He managed to turn the 

World Student Games, which 

had always been considered a 

second rate competition, into 

an event second only to the 

Olympic Games. Later some 

impressive sports facilities 

and stadiums would be built 

or reconstructed specifically 

for the holding of the World 

Student Games. 

In 1972, during the Munich 

Olympic Games, Primo was 

elected a member of the IAAF 

Council. Just one year later, in 

1973, he held the next World 

Student Games in Moscow 

with great success. Nebiolo’s 

authority was growing year 

on year; He noticeably stood 

out amongst, old school, conservative 

sports functionaries 

who had little or no initiative 

and continued to demonstrate 

his considerable abilities as 

an organiser. As an example, 

he could not understand why 

an athletic World Championships 

were not held; the main 

athletic events which were 

continental were primarily 

the European Championships 

and Pan American Games. 

Nebiolo did not like fuss and it 

seemed as though anything he 

did, happened spontaneously. 

Later people who worked with 

Nebiolo said that they had to 

forget about days off and vacations 

whilst working with 

him. 

The power 

to reform athletics 

“Write anything you want 

about me but don’t call me a 

son of Mussolini” said Nebiolo, 

ironically, when addressing 

the press at a World Student 

Games held in Sicily in 1997. 

Surprisingly, he accepted, 

without any fuss, all the media 

attacks which attempted to 

link him to the Mafiosi and reveal 

any financial malpractices 

by the king of athletics. He 

was accused of manipulating 

the results, concealing doping 

control results, despotism 

and individualism in governing 

the IAAF. But, although he had 

every opportunity to do so, he 

did not criticise his adversaries. 

He was to find something

positive out of the wave of the 

scandals that followed him, 

considering that these attracted 

people to athletics. 

“I am a supporter of freedom 

of speech for the media” 

said Nebiolo during the period 

of maximum criticism of him 

as a personality “I don’t tell 

you what to write. But even 

the not very nice rumours create 

an atmosphere around the 

competitions and attract the 

interest of the public to the 

stadiums.” 

Later, in a Roman court, 

he was able to prove that accusations 

of his participation 

in construction machinations 

during the preparations for 

the Football World Cup were 

groundless. When protecting 

the interest of his Federation, 

he was the only one who could 

stand up to the all powerful, 

President of the International 

Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio 

Samaranch. But it was 

the scandal with long jumper, 

Giovanni Evangelisti, which, 

probably, hurt him the most. 

In the 1987 IAAF World Championships 

in Athletics in Rome, 

Italian judges fabricated the 

results of Giovanni’s jump to 

allow him to get the bronze 

medal. Two years later, after 

extensive investigations, during 

which the Italian judges 

had been proven to fabricate 

the results, Nebiolo was forced 

to quit the post of President 

of the Italian National Olympic 

Committee as a result. 

Later he would only comment 

briefly on the subject of his 

resignation by saying that ‘it 

is only the person who does 

not live that does not make 

mistakes’. 

People close to Nebiolo 

used to say that he didn’t 

care at all about what people 

were saying about him but he 

couldn’t stand those who put 

obstacles in his way to progressing 

important issues. 

Being an athlete, at heart, he 

began fighting those persons 

until he triumphed which is 

why at elections for IAAF Pres- 

Primo Nebiolo greets 

the talisman of the 1999 

World Championships 

in Seville 

ident only his candidature was 

nominated time after time. 

Only a mad man would challenge 

Primo. 

Nebiolo headed the Italian 

Olympic Committee until 

1989 whilst at the same time 

being one of the influential 

members of the International 

Olympic Committee. Until 

1999 he headed the Association 

of Summer Olympic International 

Federations. 

It was in 1981 that Primo 

became the IAAF President. 

Nebiolo knew that the IAAF 

was in urgent need of reforms. 

Primo was aware how out of 

date the amateur status of 

first class athletes looked and 

the subsequent limitation of 

their activities. All could see 

that athletes stopped being 

amateurs, i.e. only participating 

in the sport in their free 

time, a long time ago. 

It was in Nebiolo’s time that 

the first IAAF World Championships, 

which were to open 

a new epoch in athletics, 

were held in 1983 in Helsinki. 

Nebiolo’s decision to move 

the IAAF headquarters from 

a modest private residence 

in a quiet street of London to 

Monte Carlo was to change 

the fortunes of athletics. It 

was Nebiolo who introduced 

holding the World Championships 

every two years and financially 

rewarding athletes. 

He presented the sport with a 

whole range of big competitions 

such as the IAAF World 

Junior Championships and 

the ‘IAAF Grand Prix’ and 

‘IAAF Golden League’ series 

of events. He was to set up an 

International Athletic Foundation 

in Monte Carlo financing 

the most important programmes 

of the Federation. 

As a result of his direct involvement, 

women’s athletics 

became equal to the men’s 

sport in that such disciplines 

as women’s triple jump, pole 

vault, hammer, middle (1500 

metres) and long distance 

races, including the women’s 

steeplechase, were recognised 

as Olympic disciplines 

and received a powerful development 

push under his 

history 

Photo Reuters 

tutorship. Thanks to Nebiolo, 

210 countries are now members 

of the IAAF which now 

has more members than at 

the United Nations. 

Attacks against doping 

When at the beginning of 

the nineteen eighties, the 

sports world became literally 

clogged up with drugs; Nebiolo 

understood that he had to 

do battle with this evil. He was 

not scared to seize the initiative 

and bring athletics to the 

fore front of the struggle with 

the disease that was destroying 

sport. 

The critical moment came 

in 1988, when, at the Seoul 

Olympics, the Canadian sprinter 

Ben Johnson was caught 

using banned stimulants. This 

event was a shock to the whole 

of athletics and, for the first 

time in history, led to the revelation 

of an athlete confessing 

in court to having used dope. 

A broken Johnson continued 

with the court case for almost 

one year. It was at Nebiolo’s 

initiative that Johnson was de- 


event 

Ben Johnson wins the 100 metres sprint 

in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul 

prived of all his medals and 

awards and his world records 

were cancelled. 

On one side it was a blow to 

the prestige of athletics but 

Nebiolo precisely foresaw the 

consequences of Johnson’s 

destruction. The organisers of 

the Games were not pleased 

with the doping stain on an 

otherwise spotlessly prepared 

Olympic Games and, though it 

was well within Nebiolo’s power 

to hush up the scandal, he 

used the incident to make the 

whole world come out in a crusade 

against doping. Leading 

sports countries, hastily created 

anti-doping commissions 

and, for the first time, people 

started talking openly about 

how deeply banned stimulatants 

had penetrated sport. 

Nebiolo’s opposition to the 

famous American 400 metre 

runner, Harry (Butch) Reynolds, 

who was disqualified for 

doping in 1990, became history. 

Reynolds went on to win 

a court case against the IAAF 

in the American courts who 

found that the IAAF guilty of 

unjustly accusing the athlete 

and awarded the accused athlete 

compensation of 27.3 

million dollars. Nebiolo refused 

to pay and got another 

court ruling to say that Ameri- 


can courts have no jurisdiction 

over the IAAF. 

When in 1993, Reynolds, 

who by this time had returned 

to athletics, helped the US relay 

team to win a gold medal 

at the IAAF World Championships 

in Stuttgart; Nebiolo 

personally awarded him the 

medal and kissed him on both 

cheeks. 

Primo became the initiator 

of introducing obligatory doping 

both in and out of competitions. 

He aroused the unconcealed 

annoyance of some 

of his colleagues from some 

International Federations 

when he appealed for tougher 

terms of disqualification. The 

present system of checkups 

out-of-competitions began in 

his time and so did the decision 

of life time bans for repeat 

offenders. The number of 

samples taken at all the biggest 

championships increased 

dramatically. IAAF anti doping 

teams started to appear at 

National Championships and 

National Federations found 

that they had to have their own 

internal doping control. 

Money and athletics 

After Primo Nebiolo died of 

a heart attack during the night 

of the 7th November 1999 at 

the age of 76 in a Rome hospital, 

there appeared many articles 

stating he was a powerful 

but contradictory manager. On 

the one hand, he attracted a 

wealth of criticism, whilst, on 

the other, he turned athletics 

into a prosperous sport pulling 

it out from the bonds of 

amateurism. He was attacked 

more than once about having 

dictatorial tendencies and for 

having acquired too much power 

in his hands. Many people 

said that he personally chose 

the locations, where he was 

most welcomed, of the venues 

of World Championships and 

World Student Games. Primo 

responded to those criticisms 

by saying “Hitler and Mussolini 

are real dictators. How is 

it possible for me to be a dictator 

in athletics?” In addition, 

Nebiolo had a fantastic ability 

to attract money to his sport 

and to organise corporate 

sponsorship for the competitions. 

He would comment “If 

you are scared of criticism, do 

not enter into big deals.” At 

that time, it seemed that one 

word from him was enough to 

gain sponsorship for the IAAF 

from any big company. In the 

IAAF, they said that if Nebiolo 

wanted something it was impossible 

to stop or resist him. 

Photo Reuters 

Even his enemies admitted 

that it was better not to have 

to deal with the king of athletics. 

At his initiative, there appeared 

the commercial events 

of the ‘IAAF Grand Prix’s’ and 

the ‘IAAF Golden League’ series 

and the leading athletes 

turned from poor amateurs 

who were happy with prizes 

of good quality sports shoes, 

into quite wealthy persons. 

When Nebiolo was appointed 

to the position of IAAF President, 

it was possible for an 

athlete receiving even 100 

dollars in prize money to be 

banned from athletics for life. 

This absurd system had to 

be urgently changed. “I love 

athletes and will always take 

pleasure in meeting and talking 

with them because they 

work hard for our ideal. And 

it is quite natural that they 

should receive a decent wage 

for their labour. I have always 

openly expressed my opinion 

in favour of rewarding athletes 

and, in this, I have tried 

to look on it as an ordinary 

person that loves athletics” 

said Nebiolo during the 1993 

IAAF World Championships in 

Stuttgart where the winners 

were awarded with the then 

fairytale prize of the latest 

model of Mercedes. The win-

Photo Reuters 

ners of the 1995 IAAF World 

Championships in Gothenburg 

were also awarded with Mercedes. 

It was after this that 

the transition to paying prize 

money started. Nebiolo also 

introduced large bonuses for 

breaking world records. 

Athletics has now become 

overgrown with professional 

managers dealing with the finances 

of their clients. It has 

emerged that athletics could 

be almost as profitable as, for 

instance, football and, in Europe, 

as in other continents, 

its popularity has boomed. 

When Nebiolo took charge of 

IAAF, the annual income of the 

Federation was not more than 

250,000 US dollars but by the 

end of his time, it had risen to 

50 million US dollars. 

The following story is supposed 

to have happened at the 

Seoul Olympics. When American 

TV demanded the organisers 

change the order of events 

so that they could transmit live, 

Nebiolo only gave into the pressure 

and agreed to compromise, 

after 20 million dollars 

had been transferred to IAAF 

accounts. This money was invested 

into the International 

Athletic Foundation. It is difficult 

to find out now if it actually 

happened like that in reality but 

that story is typical of the man. 

He was capable of channelling 

money into sport. He himself 

called this story no more than 

a rumour. The main reason for 

Primo Nebiolo and Juan 

Antonio Samaranch at the 

1999 International Olympic 

Committee meeting 

moving the IAAF headquarters 

from London to Monte Carlo 

were two strict British Laws 

which stood in the path of development 

of the Federation 

but, in general, Nebiolo was 

never a fan of the Anglo Saxon 

establishment. Firstly, the tax 

free paradise of Monte Carlo 

allowed the IAAF to grow more 

successfully and, secondly, the 

authorities of the principality 

welcomed Nebiolo with open 

arms. Besides, almost next to 

Nebiolo’s residence in Monte 

Carlo was his dear Italy and 

Turin was only an arms length 

away. At his last World Championships 

which was to become 

the event of 1999 in Seville and 

where scorching African heat 

came in waves, he was again 

elected IAAF President for another 

four year term. In spite 

of all his illnesses and enemies, 

Nebiolo was not going to quit 

his post. Although the financial 

situation of the Federation 

looked cloudless and the public 

filled the stadiums at the biggest 

competitions and despite 

the obvious satisfaction that he 

Giving the 1998 1 million Golden League Jackpot to 3 athletes 

gained from his reviewing his 

achievements, he was always 

striving for more. At the last 

dinner that Nebiolo traditionally 

gave the journalists who 

attended the World Championships, 

he talked of the IAAF as 

of an athletic family of which 

he considered himself the father. 

A good knowledge of four 

languages, English, French, 

Spanish and Portuguese as 

well as his native Italian helped 

Nebiolo to communicate freely 

with people. 

history 

Signing a four year contract 

worth more than 100 million 

dollars with the European 

Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 

1996 was Nebiolo’s biggest 

single commercial success. 

Those years were really the 

hay day of athletics. He was 

working until the very end and 

during the last months of his 

life he was busy preparing the 

timetable for the athletic programme 

at the Sydney Olympics. 

At the end, he managed 

to have the last word about the 

IAAF. Primo Nebiolo, although 

he was quite a wealthy man, 

did not accumulate wealth like 

his friend Agnelli. However, 

he managed to achieve much 

more than billions on a bank 

account. Streets, stadiums 

and competitions are named 

after him and his name has 

been entered into the list of 

honoured citizens of many cities 

of the world. Now-a-days 

he is remembered as an equal 

to the outstanding politicians 

and as the man who changed 

the world of athletics. 

Igor NIKOLAEV 


style 

Sanya 

Richards: 

the 

fashionable 

woman from 

Texas 

Sanya Richards moved with her family from her native Jamaica to USA 

when she was 12 years old and in 2002 she was made a US citizen 

while still attending the University of Texas doing her Masters in Sport. 

For America, she was a valuable acquisition because today Richards has 

become one of the stars of American sprinting. She is going to the World 

Championships in Berlin with the real possibility of winning two gold 

medals in the 400 metres and the 4x400 metres relay. 

For the 37th time in her career, she again ran faster than 50 seconds at 

the “Golden League” competition in Paris. She would later say how much 

she enjoyed the atmosphere of the “Golden League” competitions and 

that they always inspired her to produce a good performance. After the 

exhausting training of the ‘between season’ period, she had to prepare her 

body for new challenges, and, hence, the result in Paris was a kind of 

reward for all the hard work she had put in. Sanya believes that without 

the necessary training, a person cannot survive this very complicated 

distance. In an interview in Paris, she said “I do all possible in order 

to be psychologically ready for a fast race and looking after my 

appearance is an important element of preparing for the event“. 


Photo Reuters

“Do you have a special 

athletic style?” 

“Yes, certainly, I think I 

look after myself and dress 

very carefully. I think it is 

necessary that persons like 

athletes, who are in the public 

eye, should be well groomed. 

Photo Reuters 

Each sportsperson developes 

their own style both in clothing 

and behaviour and I have 

got mine. I like all the various 

combinations of my athletic 

uniform but unfortunately I 

think that it makes all of us 

look too boring.” 

Sanya Richards and Asafa Powell are 

named as the best athletes of 2006 

“Maybe, this is not too significant 

because the most important 

thing is to win.” 

“Style is not to be trifled 

with by the athletes. I know 

myself that when I am nicely 

and tidily dressed and am 

pleased with the way I look 

style 

before a race, I perform much 

better. I think that NIKE put 

a lot of effort into the search 

for new models and colours 

for their sports uniforms in 

order that the public in the 

stadiums, and not only the 

sportspersons, like them. 


style 

Clothing should be pleasing 

on the eye to inspire everyone 

to buy the products of 

the company. 

“Is NIKE your sponsor?” 

“Yes, the company kits me 

out completely but only the 

spiked shoes are made especially 

for me. All other clothing 

is the same as for other 

members of our team.” 

“And how do you dress 

outside the stadium?” 

“For life outside sport, I 

have a large wardrobe from 

which I carefully select outfits 

which are in fashion. But of 

course, I mainly buy things, 

at home, in the USA. On my 

overseas trips like this one in 

Paris, I simply do not have the 

time or the energy to go shopping 

for clothes. I prefer, in 

general, to buy things in New 


Photo Reuters 

York where I can get everything 

I need.” 

“Do you like electronic devices?” 

“It is important for me to 

stay abreast of new developments 

in technology; to have 

a modern mobile telephone 

and to buy the latest computer 

model. I have always 

tried not to lag behind technical 

progress and I like all 

kind of electronic gadgets. I 

am equipped completely in 

terms of electronics; it is my 

passion. Amongst my recent 

purchases are the latest model 

of IP phone and the latest Apple 

computer. I can’t resist the 

pleasure of buying something 

new.” 

“While competing, you look 

like a film star. Is it easy to 

look this way in such a hard 

event as the 400 metres?” 

“Before each start I prepare 

myself as if I am going to a 

ball. I have a hairdo and make 

up fully. I must look spotless 

in public. Mainly, I use M·A·C 

cosmetics.” 

“Are you fond of interior 

decoration?” 

“I have a house in Austin 

in Texas and an apartment in 

New York. I, personally, am 

not that interested in interior 

design but my mother is and 

she deals with all of this. She 

is very fond of this work and 

she busily furnishes all my 

houses. I totally rely on her 

taste.” 

“What car do you drive?” 

“In Texas, I have bought 

for myself a Mercedes Benz. 

I think this car almost exactly 

represents my style and requirements.” 

“Paris attracts tourists not 

only because it is an ancient 

city with a rich culture but 

also because it is fashionable 

and stylish. Is it important 

for you where you perform 

or do you concentrate mainly 

on getting the right result 

and do not pay much attention 

to what is outside the 

stadium?” 

“I am glad the organisers 

of this competition in Paris 

accommodated us in this ho- 

Sanya Richards 

and her fiancé, 

Aaron Ross

tel in the centre of the city. 

Once we lived in a hotel 

near the airport and that was 

not very good. In general, 

the surrounding atmosphere 

itself makes for a good performance. 

For me, where we 

are accommodated is very 

important. It is great that the 

sports manager of this competition, 

Laurent Boquillet, 

made the effort to accommodate 

us in this wonderful 

place. While here we have 

managed to see some places 

of interest and not just the 

stadium where we are performing. 

Paris is just wonderful 

especially with all the 

fireworks on their national 

holiday. I am amazed how 

beautiful this city is and the 

way the inhabitants look after 

it. This is the sixth time, I 

have come to Paris and each 

time I discover something 

new to marvel at.” 

“And how are you planning 

to arrange your stay at 

the World Championships in 

Berlin?” 

“In Berlin, I want to stay 

with my girlfriends from the 

team. We always support each 

other before a race. I am glad 

that I am only 24 because I 

believe I have a big and bright 

future ahead of me. I am also 

glad that during this season I 

have already run under 50 seconds, 

many times. I think that 

my time to become an Olympic 

Champion will come. But, 

in the meantime, I have to win 

the World Championship and 

“Golden League” series. After 

the European season is finished 

I want to go back home 

and have a full medical check 

up, to be sure that everything 

is alright with my health. 

When all my team arrive in 

Berlin, it will help me avoid 

stress and combat tiredness. 

Before the championships, we 

might play some games in or- 

der to distract our minds from 

the competition.” 

“You are wearing quite a 

strange pendant. Is it a bullet?” 

“It was presented to me by 

my mother when I was about 

ten years old and just starting 

out on my running career. She 

said that I must run faster than 

a bullet. Since then this bullet 

has become my lucky charm. 

You see that it is pretty worn 

but I never take it off. I know 

that it brings me luck.” 

“What are your other interests 

outside of running?” 

“I have to admit that I adore 

shopping and bowling is another 

passion of mine. Be- 

style 

sides this my fiancé, Aaron 

Ross plays for the football 

club, the “New York Giants” 

and I spend a lot of time at the 

stadium supporting him. Now, 

I also have the very pleasant 

task of planning our wedding 

which will happen after the 

athletics season has finished.” 

Ivan PETROV 


leaders 

Ariane Friedrich 

(Germany), 

high jump 

Born 10th January 1984. 

Height – 1.79 m. Weight – 58 

Kgm. Only a couple of years 

ago she was one of the many 

young sportswomen dreaming 

of the big time but last 

year she broke through and 

achieved her first success winning 

the European Cup. At the 

Olympics in Beijing she was 

only placed seventh. However 

everything changed during 

the winter of 2008/2009 

when she won the European 

Indoor Championships with a 

jump of 2.01 metres and then 

at the first “Golden League” 

match of the season in Berlin 

in front of 64,000 spectators 

she jumped the 2.06 metres 

and instantly became the 

German’s biggest hope for 

the August World Championships. 

Ariane 2.06 metres was 

a full 3 centimetres better than her winning jump in 2008 when she beat 

the famous Croatian, Blanka Vlašic. Indeed in the “Golden League”, 

she came close to jumping the 2.09 metres world record. 

According to her, she has always tried to jump the biggest height using 

the fewest number of jumps. This is why her starting height was 1.93 

metres. This gave her the opportunity to conserve energy. She says she 

will use the same tactics at the World Championships. Friedrich said 

that her objective is to make the high jump a popular sport once more 

in Germany. Her hobby is looking after pets. She has two rabbits and 

two cats in her house in Offenbach. Friedrich is studying to become an 

officer in the German Police Force. 

Best Performances: 

Bronze medalist of 2009 IAAF World Championships. 

Winner of 2009 1st Spar European Team Championships. 

Winner of 2009 European Indoor Championships. 

Winner of 2008 European Athletics Indoor Cup. 

Winner of 2003 European Junior Championships. 

2008 Results: 

30th May – Zweibrucken, 1.95; 1st Jun – Berlin, 2.00; 

6th Jun – Oslo, 1.98; 22nd Jun – Annecy, 2.03; 

28th Jun – Eberstadt, 2.00; 5th Jul – Nuremberg, 2.00; 

11th Jul – Bühl, 2.00; 18th Jul – Paris, 1.97; 

23rd Jul – Beijing, 1.96; 1st Aug – Bochum, 2.01; 

5th Sep – Brussels, 2.00; 14th Sep – Stuttgart, 1.97. 


Aleksandra Fedoriva 

(Russia), 

200 m & 100 m hurdles 

Born 13th September, 

1988. Height – 1.72 m. 

Weight – 59 Kgm. 

Aleksandra thinks of 

herself as a 100 metres 

hurdles runner firstly. 

A distance she intends 

to perform next year 

in 2010. But for the 

remainder of this season, 

she will continue 

running the 200 metres, 

the event chosen 

for her as a result of 

her performances at 

the Olympics in Beijing 

where the Russian 

team including 

her won a surprise 

victory in the 4x100 

metres relay. Alongside 

the 100 metres 

hurdles she would like 

to continue her career as a relay runner. Running in the European 

Athletics U23 Championships was her first objective for 2009. After 

that she would try to fight for a place in the national team at the 

World Championships. Aleksandra thinks that despite the Olympic 

gold opening new perspectives for her, she hoped it would not become 

an obstacle in the furtherance of her athletic career. 

She is a fourth year student in the Advertising Faculty of the Moscow 

Humanitarian University and she has already begun writing her 

thesis which she considers to be of great interest i.e. ”Organised 

sports events as a means of promoting physical culture among children 

and the young”. In addition, she is taking English lessons with 

a private teacher. Alexandra drives a Honda Civic and admits she is 

fond of cars and driving. 


Olympic champion 2008 in 4x100 m relay. 

Winner of 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships 

in 200 m. 

Winner of 2007 European Junior Championships 

in 100 m hurdles. 

2008 Results: 

27th Jun – Chelyabinsk, 22.69 (200 m) and 

12.90 (100 m hurdles); 

19th Jul – Kazan, 22.56; 19th Aug – Beijing, 23.04 (200 m).

Ismail Ahmed Ismail 

(Sudan), 

800 & 1500 metres 

Born: 21st October 

1984. Born 10th 

September 1984. 

Height –1.91 m. 

Weight – 71 Kgm. 

Ismail first came to 

world prominence 

when he won silver 

in the final of the 

800 metres at the 

Beijing Olympics 

after being only 

8th in the 2004 

Athens Games. He 

is the first athlete 

to bring an Olympic 

medal back 

to Sudan. In the 

following season, 

2009, he has continued 

to progress, 

and, in Ostrava, he 

improved personal 

best. In order to 

be successful at 

the 2009 World 

Championships in 

Berlin, Ismail says 

he has successfully 

completed a period of intense training. Ismail started by running the 3000 

metres, and then gradually reduced his distance until he finally ended up 

at 800 metres. His teacher, not being an experience athlete, suggested he 

ran the 3,000 metres because he thought that as Ismail was tall, he would 

be better suited to running longer distances. Having been unsuccessful 

for three years during which time he suffered a series of injuries, from 

which people said he would not recover, on the eve of the 2008 Beijing 

Olympic Games, he clocked 1:44.34 at a competition in Monaco and this 

raised his adrenalin level. 



Silver medalist of 2008 Olympic Games. 

Silver medalist of 2006 African Championships. 

2008 Results: 

9th May – Doha, 44.82; 7th Jun – Eugene, 1:44.83; 

14th Jun – Rabat, 1:44.68 ; 5th Jul – Madrid, 1:44.47; 

20th Jul – Heusden-Zolder, 1:44.77; 29th Jul – Monaco, 1:44.34; 

23rd Aug – Beijing, 1:44.70. 

2009 Results: 

17th Jun – Ostrava, 1:44.31; 7th Jul – Lausanne, 1:44.80; 

13th Jul – Athens, 1:43.82; 17th Jul – Paris, 1:45.85. 

Renaud Lavillenie 

(France), 

pole vault 

Born 18th September 1986. Height – 1.76 m. Weight – 69 Kgm. He says 

that he does not feel any fear whatsoever before a jump and that he thinks 

the sky is the limit of his jumping. Up until five years ago his best was 

only 4.60 metres, but today, according to leading experts in this event, he 

is the one with the most potential. Unlike a number of his rivals he is light 

and very fast. His progress has been swift, as three indoor jumps of 5.81 

metres and a French national outdoor record of 6.01 metres can testify. 

But by jumping 5.70 metres to win the “IAAF Golden League” competition 

in Paris in very bad weather conditions, Renaud also showed that he 

is a fighter; ready to struggle in any conditions to win major competitions, 

and that his gold medal and superiority at the European Indoor Championships 

in Turin was not a fluke. “I am trying to get the better of the wind 

and rain and to keep on trying right to the end. In this way, I can get used 

to all competition conditions. I am still young, and I need to gather experience”, 

says Renaud. 





2d at 2008 European Athletics Indoor Cup. 

2009 Results: 

1st Feb – Moscow, 5.81; 8th Mar – Turin, 5.81; 

21st Jun – Leiria, 6.01; 7th Jul – Lausanne, 5.70; 

17th Jul – Paris, 5.70; 28th Jul – Monaco, 5.88; 

22nd Aug – Berlin, 5.80. 

leaders 


Yaroslav Rybakov 


Usain Bolt

Moscow Open

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