The finale of the Diamond League last Friday in Brussels brought a close to the 2013 season of athletics. Brussels saw some athletes – most notably Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Mohammed Aman – extend their excellent form across the duration of the season; allowed others to gain a measure of revenge for prior losses; and secured overall Diamond Race victors in eighteen events. This was an athletics season which culminated less than a month ago in Moscow, with the 2013 World Athletics Championships. What follows here amounts to a discussion of some of this championships’ most interesting facets.
Accusations of poor attendance ought to be put into context:
A recurring complaint throughout the World Championships referred to the number of empty seats on display in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. This was a theme taken up particularly within the British press, with the BBC reflecting on the nine-day championships with pieces entitledĀ ‘Moscow memories: Empty seats and a muted atmosphere’Ā andĀ ‘World Athletics 2013 review: Bolt, Farah, Isinbayeva and empty seats’; the Daily Mail running with ‘Triple champion Bolt criticises empty seats, boring food and organisation at ‘not the best’ World Championships’Ā (Bolt did profess to being used to seeing stadiums ‘rammed and absolutely packed’); and UK Eurosport headlining an article ‘World Championships marred by thousands of empty seats’.
To an extent, such complaints simply reflect the observations of those in attendance, for there were prominent areas of empty seating particularly throughout the morning sessions of the championships. Yet that the BBC – among others – have argued that the championships ‘will be largely remembered for empty seats and a muted atmosphere’, stating that the Luzhniki Stadium was ‘sparsely populated’, amounts to overemphasis: impelled by a desire to evoke and glorify last summer’s London Olympics; unfair when Moscow’s attendance figures are viewed and put into perspective; and unfair too, and potentially damaging, where it concerns Russia, those athletes who excelled there, and the sport of athletics taken as a whole.
Moscow 2013 was attended by a total of 340,405 paying spectators. This represents a significant fall from the number of fans who attended the World Championships in Daegu in 2011, which totalled just under 445,000. Further back, Berlin 2009 sold 397,000 tickets, and Osaka 2007 sold 254,000. The number of tickets sold for these two championships does not equate to their actual attendances: Daegu and Moscow both utilised ticket scanning systems to determine how many spectators actually turned up for each session of competition, and with the number of tickets sold in Daegu amounting to nearly 500,000, attendance in this instance was almost 11% behind tickets sold. A similar drop applied to the number of tickets sold for Berlin would give an attendance figure of around 354,000; regardless, in the wider context of recent World Championships, the attendance for Moscow 2013 appears respectable.
Further analysis helps explain the perception of an abundance of empty seats. Where Daegu saw 261,792 paying spectators attend its eight evening sessions, Moscow’s eight evening sessions were attended by 268,548Ā (that number rises to 396,548 when all VIPs, guests, media, and athletes’ friends and family are taken into the account). This is a significant figure, offset by the relatively poor showing for the morning sessions, which saw only 71,857 attend. The dearth of people within the Luzhniki Stadium on a morning time – when heats and qualifiers were taking place – served to establish concerns about a deserted stadium.
Crucially – despite refurbishment in 1996 covering the stands and reducing the capacity from 103,000, where it stood during the 1980 Summer Olympics – the Luzhniki Stadium still has a large capacity of 78,360. It is practise for large stadiums to be configured in such a way for World Athletics Championships that their capacities for paying spectators are significantly reduced. Berlin’s Olympiastadion possesses a capacity of 74,064, which was reduced by more than half for paying spectators during the World Championships held there in 2009. Daegu Stadium boasts a capacity of 66,422; aside from the 2011 championships’ opening night, for which 46,379 seats were available, 34,030 seats were given over to fans each session for the duration of competition. In Moscow, 43,000 seats were available to paying spectators during the championships’ six weekend sessions, with 34,000 seats allocated for each of the five weekdays, and an additional 16,000 seats reserved for accredited visitors at all times. The relative size of the Luzhniki Stadium, and the increased seating given over to spectators, meant that while attendance figures through Moscow were in fact fairly strong, there was nevertheless a greater impression of spare seats.
The shape and flow of the 400 metres:
Watching Christine Ohuruogu gain ground on defending champion Amantle Montsho in the final of the women’s 400 metres, it is easy to presume that Ohuruogu gained speed towards the latter part of the race. Despite being in fifth position – behind Montsho, the Americans Francena McCorory and Natasha Hastings, and the Russian Antonina Krivoshapka – and well back on Montsho coming into the final bend, Ohuruogu’s dip on the line saw her beat Montsho by four-thousands of a second to take the gold medal in the event.
In fact, Ohuruogo ran faster over the first 200 metres of the race than she ran over the second 200 metres. This is standard for 400 metre runners. The site ‘Brian Mac: Sports Coach’ suggests – alongside a wealth of other estimations and evaluations, many based on 100 metre split times – that elite 400 metre athletes typically run their second 200 metres 1.2 seconds slower than they run their first. Ohuruogu often seems to be increasing in speed towards the end of her races because she runs a more even 400 metres than most; and therefore, without running any faster, closes down upon and often passes in the home straight other athletes who set off more quickly. In her own words,Ā ‘I never panic. I knew in the last 50 metres that the others would start dying. In the last 50 metres I will work. I still die – but I die less than they do’.
There are rare exceptions to the rule. The French male 400 metre runner Marc Raquil became well known for a storming finish after an unusually slow start; epitomised in his bronze-medal finish at the 2003 World Championships in Saint-Denis, Paris. In the final, Raquil was comfortably last going into the home straight, but flung his body forward over the last 100 metres to finish in third.
In winning the gold medal, Ohuruogu broke her personal best and set a new British record in the event. Her time of 49.41 surpassed Kathy Cook’s twenty-nine-year-old record of 49.43, which Cook recorded in achieving bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Amantle Montsho’s personal best is slightly better than Ohuruogu’s, standing at 49.33, set at the Diamond League event in Monaco earlier this year. Interestingly – and without it making her a favourite among commentators going into the final – the personal best of Antonina Krivoshapka, who finished in third, was easily the strongest amongst the field. She is recorded as having run a time of 49.16 in Cheboksary, Russia, in July of last year.
Contentious rulings in the 4×100 metres relay:
The men’s 4×100 metre relay final saw the Jamaican team victorious. The success of the Jamaicans in the event in major competition extends back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where they took Olympic gold in a world record time of 37.10 – breaking by 0.3 seconds a record held by the United States for sixteen years, set in Barcelona in 1992 and equalled a year later in Stuttgart. A gold medal and a championship record followed for the Jamaicans at the 2009 World Championships; two years later, they took another world gold, and set a new world record of 37.04; and at last summer’s London Olympics, they achieved gold with the current world record time of 36.84.
In Moscow, the United States finished in second place, with Canada promoted to third after the Great British team were rightly disqualified for failing to pass the baton within the changeover box during their second changeover.Ā Canada’s upgrade to the bronze-medal position alleviated some of the pain which they suffered at last year’s Olympics. Then – after finishing in third and celebrating what they thought was an Olympic medal – they were ultimately disqualified for having stepped on the inner-lane line during their third and final changeover. Trinidad and Tobago were awarded third in their place.
During this year’s final, the United States team were also guilty of stepping beyond the confines of their lane during their final changeover – yet they were not disqualified for it. As Justin Gatlin sought to receive the baton from Mookie Salaam, he clearly stepped into the outside lane, occupied by the Jamaican team. The rationale behind the acceptance of this, and the failure to disqualify the Americans, appears to be that the Americans didn’t impede the Jamaicans by transgressing into their lane; and that while stepping into the inside lane reduces the amount of track you have to run, and can thereby improve your time, stepping into the outside lane only adds to your race distance.
Yet when it comes to a changeover in the 4×100 metres relay, sometimes more track is precisely what a team requires. In moving to the outside lane whilst in the process of a changeover, you can essentially give yourself more time and more space in which to complete your changeover within the allocated box. It is arguable whether Gatlin impeded Usain Bolt, who took the baton for the Jamaicans’ last leg: the Americans were actually just ahead of the Jamaicans as both teams came into the changeover, but Bolt held a wide line and didn’t seem affected by Gatlin’s presence. Certainly the American changeover was poor, and saw them lose ground to their rivals – though with Bolt pulling away over the last 100 metres, it seems unlikely that a smoother changeover would have altered the result. However, the point is that – with Salaam struggling to get the baton to his runner – Gatlin’s running wide extended the space of the changeover box, and helped to ensure that the Americans passed the baton and finished the race without the sort of egregious and incontestable error which saw Great Britain disqualified.
The relay win made Bolt the most successful athlete in the history of the World Championships. He moved onto ten medals alongside Carl Lewis and Allyson Felix – but his eight golds and two silvers eclipse their collections of eight golds, one silver and one bronze. Michael Johnson possesses an outstanding record in the World Championships of eight medals, all gold; LaShawn Merritt has six golds and two silvers; while for the women, Merlene Ottey’s total haul of fourteen medals surpasses Felix’s, but is comprised of just three gold medals, with four in silver and seven in bronze.
Farah, Aman, Dibaba, Kiplagat, and more:
Moving away from analysis, towards cold and hard, yet still supple and engaging facts, the nineteen-year-old Mohammed Aman became the first Ethiopian to take World Championships gold in an event shorter than 5,000 metres. With David Rudisha absent owing to a knee injury sustained earlier in the year while running in Central Park, Aman grabbed the 800 metre title, beating Nick Symmonds and Ayanleh Souleiman into silver and bronze in a quick and competitive finish to the race. Aman’s impressive season carried through to Friday in Brussels, as he won the 800 metres in a personal best – and world leading and national record – time of 1:42.37. This puts Aman ninth on the all-time list for 800 metre running.
Aman’s compatriot, Tirunesh Dibaba, graced the championships with victory in the women’s 10,000 metres. Dibaba has never lost a 10,000 metre race, in a career which has seen her take three World Championships golds and two Olympic golds in the event. Adding her one Olympic gold, two Olympic bronzes, and two World Championships golds over 5,000 metres, plus a variety of World Cross Country Championships medals, Dibaba – still only twenty-seven – is a strong contender for the title of greatest ever female long-distance runner. Going longer still in Moscow, Edna Kiplagat’s triumph in the women’s marathon marked the first time that a women has retained the world title in the event.
Mo Farah’s remarkable realisation of a double-double – for he won gold in both the 10,000 and 5,000 metres, after managing the same feat at the Olympics last year – is an achievement matched only once before, by Kenenisa Bekele across 2008 and 2009. Indeed, while six other men have ran an Olympic double in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres – Hannes Kolehmainen in 1912, Emile ZĆ”topek in 1952, Vladimir Kuts in 1956, Lasse VirĆ©n in 1972 and again in 1976, Miruts Yifter in 1980, and Bekele in 2008 – Farah and Bekele stand as the only two athletes to have achieved this double in the thirty-year history of the World Championships (Bernard Lagat ran a shorter distance double in Osaka in 2007, winning the 1500 and 5,000 metres).Ā Farah took gold in the 10,000 metres on the first day of competition in Moscow, holding off the challenge of Ibrahim Jeilan, who pipped him to the title in 2011; before securing the 5,000 metres with a consummate performance the following Friday.
