The 12th World Championships of Athletics begin in Berlin tomorrow and I can barely contain my excitement. Being the 3rd biggest global sporting event after the Olympics and football World Cup, I feel I have good reason to be dancing around the living room in my underwear in anticipation.
Go on, admit it, with the prospect of the three fastest men in history going head to head over 100 metres on Sunday you know you want to throw off your trousers and do the samba!
Let’s take a look at the facts. The event’s outstanding favourite is triple Olympic champion and fastest man in the whole wide world ever Usain Bolt. Bolt is yet to win a World title, taking a measly silver behind Gay in the 200 metres in Osaka two years ago. But you’d have to be a stark, staring lunatic (or Sanchez…no wait, Sanchez is a stark, staring lunatic) to bet against a man who’s p.b. is 9.69 seconds!!! That’s over 23mph for Pete’s sake. Tyson Gay, however, is the reigning World 100 and 200m champion and has posted this year’s fastest 100m time of 9.77sec. He was kept out of last year’s Olympic 100m final due to injury, denying us all the head-to-head this year’s event promises.
Add to this the fact that the IAAF is paying a $100,000 bonus for any athlete breaking a world record at the championships and I think we’ll see fireworks!
I feel duty bound to say that former world record holder Asafa Powell should also be in the mix, but as we’ve witnessed in successive Olympic and World finals, great times don’t guarantee you a medal and Powell seems to let himself get beaten before the gun’s even gone off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the guy and he’s clearly immensely talented, he just lacks that winning mentality when it comes to the major finals, which is a real shame and I truly hope he does turn up this time, as what an epic final that would make.
Other highlights of the week include the men’s 200m (for all the reasons above!), the 400m grudge match between World Champion and so-called successor to Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner and last year’s Olympic champ LaShawn Merritt and the battle of the lanky lasses, Blanca Vlasic and her new arch nemesis Ariane Friedrich in the high jump – now there’s a record begging to be broken. I personally love to see the shot put, with Adam Nelson whipping himself up into a frenzy and ripping off his shirt before every attempt and Olympic champ Tomasz Majewski who ‘accidentally’ dropped the shot on rival Christian Cantwell’s foot a couple of week’s ago at Crystal Palace, now, now boys. let’s play fair! I’m looking forward to Jessica Ennis winning the heptathlon – no more lame excuses and fish ‘n’ chip suppers as you’d expect from Kelly Sutherton, no, barring any doped up Eastern European he-birds, I’d stake my house (and have! oh dear god, what have I done?) that Ennis will take the gold.
I promise you this, there will be epic showdowns, world records, tears and tantrums (from the American athletes!) and men with magnificent physiques. What more could a girl ask for…?