Moscow Open

12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics
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
44 | www.athletics-magazine.com
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