World Championships Athletics Berlin 2009

Unlike a good number of our members who had the fabulous experience of going to Berlin to see the Champs live, I watched it on TV when I could, so my comments are about what events l managed to see.

100m Psychology plays a huge part in this event and credit to Bolt’s coach, he prepares his athlete well.
Speed plays a big part too, a fast finisher won the Men’s 10,000m and the fastest rotational putter won the Shot as against Myerscough who was pedestrian by comparison. But weren’t the throws exciting with only centimetres separating the top three in the men’s and women’s events and in the Discus ?  The only World Record came in the Women’s Hammer. I’d rather watch more throwing events than listen to the “same old” from the “pundits” ( with the exeption of Denise Lewis )
As coaches, we must train our athletes to run their best in any lane in which they might be drawn.
We must train them to run heats before being at their best in the final, so speed endurance cannot be neglected.
The star for me is 5’4” tall and weighs under 9 stones. Ennis has the ability to remain focused for hours ( like Daley Thompson ) but unlike him, she still didn’t take it easy in the last event when she had Gold in the bag. Nor could Thompson high jump nearly a foot over his own height.
What happened to Christine O in the 400m? Had she previously been on something or was she just out of sorts?
If a professional horizontal jumper like Phillips O can’t hit the board, what’s he been doing in training? His winning jump could have been only a few centimetres off 18m.
Frank Attoh is to be congratulated as all his jumpers did well. He needs to coach the winner of the women’s LJ who with a better technique could easily jump 7.60m
Tactics is paramount; what was Lagat doing in the 1500m? The favourite was also boxed in and came nowhere. Our women’s 4x400m relay team may have benefitted by running in a different order.
Back to speed. Lisa D could have won Gold in the 1500m with an extra” half yard” of speed.
I hope our youngsters and vets even, are inspired by what they saw which l found enthralling.
 

Steve Harris