Berlin Diary - Part 1
Thursday 20 August 2009
For the past five days, the eyes of the athletic world have been focused on Berlin and the World Athletics Championships. Amongst the spectators in the Olympic stadium has been the select group of the club’s “Cardiff on Tour” who were there from the first moment of competition last Saturday and will be there until the closing ceremony next Sunday.
Not that everything has been perfect for them. With efficient foresight (well, they were going to Germany), a hotel was booked near to the arrival airport and on a direct train line to the stadium. Ideal; until the chosen airline (Lufthansa) cancelled its service from Bristol and the group was forced to re-book with Easyjet – which flies to a different airport in Berlin. But this hitch did not affect their enthusiasm and Kath Elias has even found time (with a little help from her friends) to compose some initial thoughts:
“Berlin. A city whose past resulted in destruction and division but is now rebuilt and reunited. A city of wide, tree lined streets, a mixture of many buildings and many green open spaces. A city which remembers and learns from its past through a war-ruined church, fragments of “the wall” and memorials to its dead. A city of excellent and varied restaurants and a fantastic transport system.
But the heart of Berlin is its people; friendly, helpful and willing to put up with my very broken German.
But now to the reason for our visit – the championships – held in a magnificent stadium on a blue track under blue skies. Many sports claim to hold world championships but only athletics holds a truly worldwide event with over 200 participating countries.
But the highlight so far has to be BOLT; a man with wings on his feet and a smile on his face. What a race but, “oh my gosh”, what a time – unbelievable; and I am delighted to say “I was there”.
Jessica Ennis got Team GB off to a good start, fulfilling her potential and achieving a stunning victory. Phillips Idowu’s gold medal two days later added icing to the cake along with Jennie Meadow’s bronze in the controversial 800m.
The first day had been bitter sweet from the Welsh point of view and the delight with Swansea’s Dave Greene’s progress (and subsequent fine performance in reaching the 400m hurdles final) could not fully compensate for our collective sympathy for Rhys Williams. Rhys was naturally bitterly disappointed with his performance and, according to his sister Katherine, felt he had let himself down. This is a natural reaction but he will surely come to realise what an achievement it was simply to be there after his problems of the past two years and more. And drawing lane eight did not help. Rhys will be back and has next year’s Commonwealth Games and European Championships to spur him on.”
It was interesting to read Phillips Idowu’s reflections after his victory when he stressed the importance of being able to take part in the British Athletic League when he left school.
"The British league was a great foundation to have," said Idowu. “I may not have progressed, because where else are you going to get competitions and regular meets? It definitely helped. Coming out of the school system, it was the only place where I could compete. I was not at international level at that time and I got to compete against seniors, guys a lot older than me and it was a learning curve."
Jennie Meadows said something similar when she stressed that she had not been particularly good as a junior athlete but had simply stuck at it and improved little by little, year by year, through steady training. And now she is third best in the world.
Young athletes who may think that the big time is well beyond them should take inspiration from these athletes.
Kath Elias, Kay James, Graham and Christine Webb, along with Peter Morris are in Berlin for the whole championships. John and Mary Lister are now home again and Clive and Barbara Williams are out for the last four days. Graham and Chris are sharing an apartment with Wynford and Sue Leyshon near the Berlin Zoo (no funny comments please). Both Wynford and Sue were good athletes who used to compete for Cardiff and Wynford (currently helping Dave Greene with his coaching) was himself an international 400m hurdler. Rhys's mother and father, along with sister Katherine were there to support Rhys. So there was quite a big Welsh contingent with several Welsh flags flying in the stadium.
Look out for part 2 after the championships end.