REVIEW:

Too many competitions prevent world records

Dinesh Weerawansa after a tour of Russia

World Championship which was concluded at Luzhniki Stadium in the Russian capital of Moscow last Sunday was a significant one for Sri Lanka, which produced a finalist only for the third time in the 30-year-old championship history.

The atmosphere was ideal for Russia to host the IAAF World Championship for the first time at an important juncture as they prepare to host the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year and the FIFA World Cup in a couple of years time.

On the other hand, it was a memorable one for yours truly who was covering his seventh successive World Championship in Athletics for Sunday Observer and Daily News after Edmonton 2001 in Canada, Paris Saint Dennis 2003 in France, Helsinki 2005 in Finland, Osaka 2007 in Japan, Berlin 2009 in Germany and Daegu 2011 in South Korea.

It was sprinter Susanthika Jayasinghe who had made it to finals on both the previous occasions. Jayasinghe went on to win medals on both the occasions she had made it to the finals of her pet event - a silver behind Ukraine’s Zahana Pintusevich-Block in Athens 1997 and a bronze ten years later in Osaka 2007.

Ace woman javelin thrower Nadeeka Lakmali became only the second Sri Lankan athlete to qualify for a final in the IAAF World Championship history after Jayasinghe when the lass from Elpitiya made it to the final of the women’s javelin throw at Moscow 2013 Championship.

Some athletic pundits and scribes may argue that Lakmali could not better even her own Sri Lanka record in Moscow. Such arguments are good for people with a limited knowledge on track and field sport, to go merely by distance or timing. But if one is to make a careful analysis, it is not only the distance but several other factors too should be taken into account. Among them are the wind gauge, humidity, temperature and performance of the other competitors.

Of the 12 finalists who competed in women’s javelin throw, only one athlete came out with personal best - Australian Kimberley Mickle who threw 66.60m, that too in her sixth and final attempt. If not for that and her second attempt of 66.25, she wouldn’t have won the silver medal. Even the gold medallist Christina Obergfoll of Germany finished well behind her personal best of 70.20m. But her throw of 69.05m was good enough to finished first.

Lakmali – satisfying performance

Hence, Lakmali’s performance of 58.16m in the final is something Sri Lanka could look forward to future with confidence. That was the best in three attempts by Lakmali as only the top eight thereafter were given a chance to complete six attempts. Who knows whether Lakmali would have set a new Sri Lanka mark and achieved her personal best if she had got the next three attempts! Lakmali should be commended for her performance of 60.39m in the qualifying round which earned her a place in the final.

Olympic silver medallist Jayasinghe too has admired Lakmali’s feat, saying that it is even more difficult to enter a field event such as javelin throw which involves a lot of technique and expertise compared to 200m. It is heartening to hear celebrated Sri Lanka athlete such as Jayasinghe commending Lakmali’s feat.

However, hurdler Christine Sonali Merril painted a poor picture. She finished last in her heat and was disqualified for violating IAAF rule 168.7 (a) involve hurdling. It is unfortunate that an athlete of her calibre, based in California, USA and training with modern techniques, made such a mistake.

Certain local scribes have blamed her as if she had made a wild card entry at Sri Lanka’s expense. Merril came to Moscow as a direct qualifier under ‘B’ category as Lakmali. Even Sri Lanka’s men’s 4 x 400m relay team qualified to compete in Moscow under the same category. Hence, it is commendable for Lakmali, Merril and the men’s relay team to qualify and earn their places, rather than begging for wildcards.

True that Sri Lanka’s men’s 4 x 400m relay team could not display the same performance they displayed at last month’s Asian Championship to win a bronze medal. If we had taken better care of those youth after the Pune triumph, they would have been able to deliver the goods, perhaps they would have made it to the finals.

Sri Lanka’s men’s team morale low

The morale of Sri Lanka’s 4 x 400m relay team was at low ebb. Some of them had used plasters to cover their torn spikes. It became even tougher for Sri Lanka which was drawn in a tougher heat two in which all other seven teams, except for Sri Lanka came out with their season’s best in the qualifying round itself. Sri Lanka finished last in the heat with a timing of three minutes, 6.59 seconds.

It was the worst among the 24 teams which took part in the three heats. They failed to come anywhere near their Asia Championship medal-winning performance of 3:04.92 in Pune last month.

The 14th IAAF World Championship did not produce a single world record. There was only a solitary World Championship record in Moscow with Ukrainian Bohdan Bondarenko clearing 2.41m in men’s high jump. The main reason for the record drought is excessive competition.

The lucrative Diamond League has stretched the elite athletes to their maximum and some looked exhausted event before the most important event in the world athletic calendar. Hence, most athletes merely competed for their medals and were not worried about records at all. Even the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who established back to back sprint records at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, which the writer was fortunate enough to witness the Jamaican sprint merchant doing 100m in 9.58 seconds and 200m in 19.19 seconds.

Bolt underlines supremacy

Reigning champion Bolt underlined his supremacy as the fastest man on earth when he bagged men’s 100m title with a season’s best timing of 9.77seconds. The Jamaican sprint merchant made a creditable comeback after being disqualified in the final of the same event for a false in Daegu two years ago.

It appears that Jamaica has completely taken over the world track supremacy from the United States. The days when the Americans swept the boards and occupied all three positions in victory podiums in the sprint events of world track and field meets are no more, with the emergence of the new generation sprint merchants from Jamaica. The Jamaican thunder storm in world athletic reached the peak when they pocketed all six sprint golds on offer 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relays for men and women.

The mighty Jamaicans have been unstoppable both in the men’s and women’s events. Bolt, who added the Moscow 2013 World Championship title to his London Olympic 100m gold, lived up to expectations. In exactly 24 hours after Bolt accounted for the men’s 100m gold, his Jamaican team-mate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce triumphed in women’s 100m dash with the biggest winning margin in the 30-year-old World Championships history.

Fraser–Pryce – second fastest time

With such tough opposition - a race that included the second-fastest woman of all-time and five other GGGwomen with personal bests of below 10.9 seconds, Fraser-Pryce knew that she could not leave room even for a slightest error.

There was no looking back for Fraser-Pryce and she continued to pull away from the field, stopping the clock in this year’s world-leading time of 10.71 seconds. Running against the wind (- 0.3m/s), it was the second-fastest time of her career, just one hundredth of a second short of her personal best recorded last year.

Russia and Jamaica posed the biggest threat to the US dominance in track and field, After five successive championship triumph, the USA failed to head the final medal standings as the hosts Russian beat them in a thriller by a solitary gold medal. Jamaica maintained its track supremacy with Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce completing a golden hat trick each.

Bolt capped the competition with his third scorching performance on the final day, running away from the 4x100m relay field to give Jamaica gold for the third consecutive championships and secure a relay double for Jamaica, who also won the women’s race.

The shorter relay was a wild affair with several teams in contention up to the last exchange. There, at the top of the homestretch, Bolt got the baton from Nickel Ashmeade more or less equal with the USA quartet. Bolt then simply left Justin Gatlin in his wake, opening a gap immediately and bringing the Jamaican squad home in 37.36 to the USA’s 37.66.

US women matches Bolt’s running

Bolt’s successful anchor leg, while impressive, was equalled in its dominance by the performance of the women’s team. The quartet of Carrie Russell, Kerron Stewart, Schillonie Calvert, and double sprint champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce set a championship and national record of 41.29 by handing Fraser-Pryce the baton with a sizeable lead and pointing the ‘Pocket Rocket’ at the finish line.

While Jamaica maintained its class in sprints, Great Britain’s 2012 Olympic hero Mo Farah lived up to expectations as the hot favourite in middle distance running. He proved that his golden double at London Olympics was not a surprise due to home advantage and accounted for both the men’s 5,000m and 10,000m titles in Moscow 2013.

Farah underlined his supremacy with a season’s best 27 minutes and 21.71 seconds to win the men’s 10,000 final. The Somali-born long distance champion kept his cool to push Ibrahim Jeilan (who beat Farah in Daegu 2011) to the second place, though the Ethiopian surprise too clocked his season’s best 27:22.23.

True that the Bolt was hero of all but the cynosure of all eyes was celebrated Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva. There is no doubt that women’s pole vault is one of the most favourite event in any athletic calendar. If Ukraine Sergey Bubka could rightly be called the king in pole vault, the queen’s title would undoubtedly go to Russian Isinbayeva.

Russian Isinbayeva – the star

Isinbayeva won her Third World Championship gold in front of her home crowd on what could be remembered as ‘Terrific Tuesday’. She came out with a magnificent performance before cheering home supporters to pocket her third gold l in women’s pole vault in the World Championship history. A miss at her opening height did not shake her and she duly sailed over 4.65m on her second attempt. She then cleared 4.75m at the first time of asking, but didn’t take the lead as Olympic champion Jenn Suhr and Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg had also cleared that height with faultless records up to that point. Cuba’s world leader Yarisley Silva got over 4.75m in her second attempt, having needed three attempts at her previous height.

With four women clearing 4.75m, it matched the depth of the 2007 World and 2008 Olympic finals. Defending champion Fabiana Murer could not clear 4.75m though and exited the competition, the Brazilian only managing a best of 4.65m. The medals were finally decided at 4.89m. Isinbayeva was up first and assured the hosts another gold medal.

She upped the bar to 5.07m, attempting to improve on her own world record but was unfortunately unsuccessful in her all three attempts. Nevertheless, she did exactly what her county expected from her as Russia is hosting the biggest athletic extravaganza in the world for the first time.

But her team-mate and defending 800m champion Marya Savinova could not maintain her position as the crowd favourite. As she moved to pass early leader Alysia Johnson Montano, they roared their approval. Savinova, however, had just started on her frantic, and ultimately unsuccessful, sprint to catch Eunice Sum. The Kenyan had moved earliest to catch the fast-starting Montano, and as a result built a lead over Savinova that the Russian was unable to close. Sum won gold in 1:57.38 while Savinova settled for the silver in 1:57.80.

Asbel Kiprop dominated the men’s 1500m final in much the same way that British star Farah dominated the longer races, controlling the pace throughout and setting up his own victory.

The defending champion and 2008 Olympic champion, dictated a slow pace at first, held the pack back from pursuing team-mate Nixon Chepseba, and finally launched an unbeatable drive to the finish which brought him to the line in 3:36.28.

Russia on top of medals table

Russia ended USA’s dominance in the IAAF World Championship after 12 years as hosts ended on top of the final medals table.

With a rich haul of seven gold medals, four silver and six bronze medals, Russia narrowly beat USA to head the final medals standings of the 206-nation championship. Russia’s galaxy of gold medallists included Aleksandr Ivanon (men’s 20km walk), Elena Lasmanova (women’s 20km walk), Yelena Isinbayeva (women’s pole vault), Tatyana Lysenko (women’s hammer throw), Aleksandr Menkov (men’s long jump), Svetlana Shkolina (women’s high jump) and its women’s 4 x 400m relay team.

USA lost the top slot in the final medals table after five successive World Championships. T

he Americans narrowly held on to the top slot with a solitary gold medal more than Russia at the last championship in 2001 after USA has underlined its supremacy since the Paria San Denis IAAF World Championship in 2003.

USA – most medals in Moscow

The USA had a one gold medal lead over Russia in Daegu 2011 and it was vise versa this time around with the hosts taking a similar lead of just one gold medal more than the USA, which finished second in the final medals standings with six gold medals, 14 silver and five bronze medals.

The total number of ls won by USA in Moscow 2013 is the highest by any team - 25. Though USA has been a dominant force in relays, they managed to win only one of the four relays in Moscow - men’s 4 x 400m with Jamaica making a clean sweep in both the men’s and women’s 100m relays.

The other US gold medallists included Brittney Reese (women’s long jump), Ashton Eaton (men’s decathlon), David Oliver (men’s 110m hurdles), LaShawn Merritt (men’s 400m) and Brianna Rollins (women’s 100m hurdles).

USA would have tied with Russia with seven gold medals and still held on to the top slot for the six successive time by having more silver medals if Allison Felix had not suffered injury in women’s 200m final.

The defending champion and three-time gold medallist would have given Jamaican Shelley Ann Fraser a good challenge if she had not been forced to withdraw halfway due to a hamstring injury.

In the third place of the Moscow 2013 medals table is Jamaica which has been the most dominant force in sprints with world’s fastest man Bolt and sprint queen Fraser completing golden triples each. Both won the men’s and women’s 100m and 200m gold medals in addition to their respective 4 x 100m relays. Jamaica won six gold, two silver and a bronze medal. In the fourth place of the medals standings was Kenya with five gold, four silver and three bronze medals. The host of the 2009 championship Germany ended fifth by winning four gold, two silver and a bronze medal. In the sixth place is Ethiopia with three gold, three silver and four bronze medals, followed by Great Britain, Czech Republic, Ukraine and France.

Of the 206 countries which took part at the 14th edition of the IAAF World Championships here,173 including Sri Lanka failed to secure at least a solitary medal. China, having successfully hosted the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, will host the next IAAF World Championship in its capital Beijing in 2015.

It would be interesting to see whether China could regain its form to take the top slot as they did as the proud hosts of the 2008 Olympic Games. But China painted a poor picture here in Moscow 2013 with only a silver and three bronze medals to occupy the 22nd place in the final medals table.