2009 World Championships – the spikesmag.com review
After a whirlwind nine days action inside the Berlin Olympic Stadium spikesmag.com catches its breath and looks back on our top ten performers from the World Championships...
1 – Usain Bolt
The master of the seemingly impossible continues to defy belief. After his sensational efforts inside the Bird’s Nest Stadium, guess what he does? Well, he only takes another 0.11 from his world 100m record, the biggest chunk off the mark in history with 9.58. Four days later he also wipes 0.11 from his 200m mark to record 19.19. Yes, that’s 19.19 for the 200m! He also lands a third gold medal in the men’s 4x100m and the frightening fact is he reckons he was not in as good a shape in Berlin as he was at last year’s Olympic Games. Note also his 19.19 was into a slight headwind, so surely more, much more to come.
2 – Steve Hooker
The Australian pole vaulter's chances of adding the World title to the Olympic title looked all but over after he tore his adductor muscle two weeks before competition. Call it Aussie doggedness or just plain madness he refused to give up on his World Championship dream. He made just one painful clearance during qualification and landed the biggest gamble of his life in the final. In serious pain he tried and failed in his first attempt at 5.85m. Then in a death or glory bid he raised it to 5.90m, sailed over and won gold. Incredible.
3 – Blanka Vlasic
Other than for a handful of spectators in the Olympic Stadium the tall Croatian would not have been the crowd favourite in the women’s high jump final. No, the vast majority of support was firmly behind Ariane Friedrich, the darling of German athletics. Yet Vlasic survived the intense pressure to win gold with a best clearance of 2.04m. Friedrich, meanwhile, could only clear 2.02m for the bronze.
4 – Sanya Richards
This was the US girl who could never win the big one. No more. Richards has dominated women’s one-lap running for the past four years but due to a combination of illness, injury and tactical naivety she had yet to land a global title. However, she finally banished the ghosts of past disappointments to take the world 400m title with a textbook performance in 49.00 – the world’s fastest time this year.
5 – Phillips Idowu
Another athlete with a litany of disappointments and near misses on the global outdoor stage finally won gold at the age of 30. The man who beat him to the Olympic title in Beijing last year, Nelson Evora took a first round lead with 17.54m but the British athlete refused to panic and leapt out to an outdoor personal best of 17.73m in round three to nail gold at last! Huzzah!
6 – Robert Harting and those Germans
What a difference a year, not to mention a passionate home crowd, makes. Germany won just one solitary track and field bronze medal at the Beijing Olympic Games, which represented Germany’s worst ever performance at a major athletics event. However, during the nine days of competition the Germans were inspired, winning two golds thanks to the ebullient Robert Harting (he of the exuberant post-competition, shirt-ripping, bear-carrying celebrations) in the discus and veteran javelin thrower Steffi Nerius and they landed nine medals in total. Fantastic.
7 – Jessica Ennis
“Destiny calling” was the headline we used in SPIKES magazine's pre-Champs interview with the British heptathlete – boy, did Jess ever hear it. This was a simply blistering display of multi-eventing, which by the end of day one had notched her the third best first-day points score ever. After the heartbreak of last year where injury robbed Ennis of her chance to shine in Beijing, she got the chance to show us what the Bird’s Nest had missed. Totally rockin’.
8 – Ryan Brathwaite
Who? Precisely. The beauty of track and field is its magic unpredictability and who would have guessed the 21-year-old from Barbados would win world 110m hurdles gold. He ran like a man inspired throughout the competition and a national record of 13.14 in the final was good enough to hold off the experienced US duo of Terrence Trammell and David Payne in the final.
9 – Kenenisa Bekele
Can anyone stop the incredible Ethiopian? On day three of the championships he matched the achievement of his iconic countryman Haile Gebrselassie to land his fourth successive world 10,000m title and did so at a canter. He has never, ever lost a 10,000m race in his life. Just for good measure he became the first man in history to land the 5000m and 10,000m double at the championships.
10 – Berlino
Yes, he may only be a bear but he regularly upstaged the athletes with his outlandish post-race celebrations. The popular mascot whipped his shirt off, knocked gold medallist Steffi Nerius to the ground and almost threw the world 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker off the back of a buggy. But the bungling bear was loved by all. A true star.