World Athletics Championships: Moscow 2013

Two weeks ago today I was in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, for the first of four days at the World Athletics Championships.

The championships were criticised for poor attendances, and on the Thursday and the Friday (for Mo Farah’s second glorious gold) the home of the 1980 Olympics was a bit empty.

Mo Farah wins gold in the 5,000m

 

Mo Farah hears the national anthem from the top of the podium for the second time in the week

But Saturday and Sunday saw good turn-outs, with the atmosphere for Russia’s gold in the women’s 4x400m relay absolutely electric. Other highlights were Usain Bolt, of course, and French triple jumper Teddy Tamgho, who became only the third person to jump further than 18 metres.

The only downer? We weren’t there for Christine Ohuruogu’s incredible win in the 400m…

An annoying section of Ukraine fans say thanks to their Russian hosts on the final day

 

World Athletics Championships: Moscow 2013

This time next week I’ll be in Moscow to catch the last four days of the World Athletics Championships, which start on Saturday.

The Luzhniki Stadium, home to the 2013 World Athletics Championships. Picture: Ekaterina Lokteva, Flickr

It’s the most important athletics event this year, and second only to the Olympics in terms of prestige. Britain only had five athletics medallists at London 2012 – Mo Farah, the injured Jess Ennis, Greg Rutherford, Christine Ohuruogu and Robbie Grabarz – so I’m not necessarily expecting a huge amount in terms of God Save the Queen singing.

I’ll also be missing some of my favourite international athletes, with David Rudisha, Kirani James and Valerie Adams all either absent or competing before I arrive, but I can hardly complain.

What will be interesting will be to see how unenthused the Moscow public is by the championships. Ticket sales have been poor, even after officials at the stadium which hosted the 1980 Olympics decided to cover more than half of them with giant banners.

The Olympiastadion, Berlin, during the 2009 World Athletics Championships – on the night Usain Bolt got the 100m world record which still stands

It will be a huge contrast with London 2012, and even with the three days of Anniversary Games last month, when Britain again got very much behind athletes of all nations.

Daegu in 2011 was also relatively poorly attended, and the Olympiastadion in Berlin two years prior to that was marginally fuller – although I still managed to get a ticket to one evening session the same day.

The World Championships in 2015 will be held in Beijing’s Birds’ Nest Olympic Stadium, but perhaps it won’t be until 2017, and their return to London, that the Championships are a sell-out.

BBC Sports Personality of the Year: vote David Weir

The importance, or otherwise, of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is up for debate, particularly in a year of almost unprecedented British sporting success.

But I might as well make my pick. I think Alastair Cook is unlucky to miss out on a place in the shortlist of 12, although his big achievement was after the shortlist was announced. Having said that, though, I would have to choose an Olympian or Paralympian, which rules out Rory McIlroy.

Mo Farah and Jess Ennis have rightly been lauded for their remarkable success in August, but I am more inclined to someone who hasn’t been in the media spotlight all year anyway. For that somewhat illogical reason, two of the favourites, Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray, are also ruled out of getting my vote.

I would hate to belittle the incredible success of Sir Chris Hoy, Ellie Simmonds and Ben Ainslie, but they have already had so much success their golds this time almost feel like par for the course. Nicola Adams is a real personality, true, but I don’t reckon she deserves the nod above the rest of the competition.

So my top three would be:

• 3rd: Katherine Grainger – a stalwart of British rowing for years, and one who had got so close before but never quite managed Olympic gold. This year she finally changed that.
• 2nd: Sarah Storey – a five-time Paralympic swimming gold medallist, she added four more cycling golds to her two from Beijing in London. She cantered to victory in all of her races over the various distances, making all of her events look almost embarrassingly easy
• 1st: David Weir – not just because he was the only one of the 12 I saw win over the summer, for two of his four gold medals in four events, in distances ranging from 800m to the marathon. He won the marathon despite confessing to feeling exhausted early on and visibly fading during the first lap or two. And most of all, perhaps Weir was the single athlete who allowed the British public to get as engaged with the Paralympics as much as they did with the Olympics (people were talking about him on the Tube in the same way they were Farah and Ennis).