News02 Jul 2021


Looking back at World Athletics’ exploration and discovery of the sport

FacebookTwitterEmail

Discovering and exploring athletics

Over the past few months, World Athletics' platforms have been focused on helping fans discover and explore all that is good about the sport. Here are some of the highlights.

 

In a series called Japan's Seven Wonders , we've been looking at the major athletics championships that have been staged in Japan.

The last Games to use a cinder track, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics will be remembered for many magical moments. It also marked a small step in the right direction towards equality between the men’s and women’s events as the Tokyo Games introduced a women’s 400m and pentathlon for the first time.

Bikila’s retention of his marathon title further cemented East Africa’s growing influence over global endurance running. While the Games also witnessed the rising strength of East European athletes – particularly on the women’s side – which would remain in place for more than quarter of a century.

The building of the National Stadium for the Games helped attract a slew of top-drawer international events to the venue, including – some 27 years later – the hosting of the 1991 World Athletics Championships.

Instalments: 2021 Olympics | 2019 World Relays | 2007 World Championships | 2006 World Cross | 1999 World Indoor Championships | 1991 World Championships | 1964 Olympics

 

In April, to mark the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, we looked at the work marathon great Tegla Loroupe has done in this area of the sport.

“Finding peace through sport is a way to bring peace to so many refugees and disadvantaged people and when peace exists development is possible,” says Loroupe. “As part of the foundation's work, training refugee athletes for the Olympics has been a dream come true, and we know if these athletes are on the world stage we will continue to create more peace in the world.

“In sport it’s important to give back. We need to create room for love, reconciliation and work,” she added.


“Refugees are good people and they are very resilient. They’ve been through hard lives, and they are still standing tall. I see myself as a mother for those who need a mother.”

Read more

 

In the countdown to the World Athletics Relays Silesia21, event ambassador and 2004 Olympic champion Jason Gardener gave a masterclass on the art of the 4x100m.

“The real skill to achieving ultimate success is pulling together a cohort of highly exceptional performers and trying to develop that camaraderie, because it is difficult,” he says.

“Just knowing the people that you are working with. Darren Campbell was an athlete I trained with for years, and Marlon Devonish – I knew their intricacies, inside out. For example, in the changeover zone, Darren’s hand would often bounce up and bounce down, whereas Marlon’s hand would go up and it would be fixed there.

“There are different strengths required, like for the last leg there would be Mark Lewis-Francis on our team and there’s big pressure – whether you get the baton in front and stay in front or if you can hunt people down. That’s the beauty and excitement, and of course we all love it when sometimes things don’t go quite to plan and there’s a big collision at changeovers and messes going on and suddenly there’s a shift in who is winning the race or who has fallen behind.

“It makes it really exciting but as I said, the art is actually being able to come together as a team.”

Read more

 

One of the teams who capitalised on their camaraderie at the World Athletics Relays Silesia21 was Ecuador, who made history by becoming the first relay team from their country to qualify for the Olympic Games.

“We are one big heart, we are one country,” says Tenorio. “We are representing millions of Ecuadorian people. Every time we step in a lane, we think about them, about our family, about our team.”

For teammate Yuliana Angulo, who was drafted in for the final on Sunday (2), the desire within their ranks made a big difference in the breakthrough.

“I believe the reason why we have achieved such an amazing result is because we truly wanted it,” she says. “For me, it’s very emotional to be part of the team.”

Read more

 

The May episode of the World Athletics Podcast was a decathlon legends special, featuring Roman Sebrle, Ashton Eaton and Kevin Mayer - the only members of the event's 9000-point club.

“I want to set the record straight,” said Eaton. “I think Kevin is the greatest athlete we have on earth right now. In the United States we always hear stuff about LeBron James or comparisons to other sports, and people often tag me into conversations on social media. I’m just like, ‘man, you guys have no clue’. When you see what this guy did for running, jumping and throwing over these events, it’s unbelievable. I don’t think anybody understands.”

Read more

 

The June edition of the World Athletics Podcast was a 110m hurdles special, featuring four legends of the event: Renaldo Nehemiah, Allen Johnson, Aries Merritt and Grant Holloway.

“It was like a dream come true racing Allen,” said Merritt, the world record-holder. “I’d looked up to Allen since 1996. I didn’t even know back then that I was going to be a hurdler, but I remember watching him win Olympic gold in Atlanta and I told my mom that I wanted to do that.

“In the era I ran against Allen, there were several other guys around the world running fast,” added Merritt. “We had Dayron (Robles) running well, and Liu Xiang just seemed extraordinary. I remember studying Liu’s race, I studied Allen’s race. I also studied Renaldo’s trail leg mechanics and that’s pretty much how my technique was born.”

Read more

 

We have continued our series of illustrated stories, looking back at iconic moments and athletes.

Instalments: Irena Szewinska | Nawal El Moutawakel | Derartu Tulu and Elana Meyer

 

In the lead up to the national championships window, we looked at the trials and tribulations of being a top Ethiopian distance runner.

“Running comes with two things,” Teferi said. “Naturally, you have ‘it’. The rest comes from training. My ability is natural and comes from inside me. So I can run in the middle distances up to the marathon. This is just natural for me so I am able to run.”

Read more

 

It's not just Ethiopia and Kenya who are making strides in the distance running world. We featured the Indian endurance project in Bhopal with big ambitions.

A trail was made around the complex, meaning athletes for the first time began to do some of their training outside the track. Less focus was placed on hitting specific times on each individual run and his charges were encouraged to go by feel. Improvements were made to diet. Once a year some of the group would join Van den Broek in Iten and gradually they began to develop at impressive rates.

By 2019 both Murli and Abhishek had transformed into athletes capable of competing on a new level, finishing first and second respectively at the Indian Championships over both the 5000m and 10,000m. The reward: a trip to Doha for that year’s Asian Championships.

Read more

 

To mark the birthday of Ethiopian distance legend Haile Gebrselassie, we looked back at one of the highlights of his outstanding career: his 10,000m triumph at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Not until the final 20 metres did Gebrselassie draw level with Tergat. Not until the final 10 did he edge ever-so-slightly ahead. Not until the final line had he won. The margin was 0.09 seconds – the closest of all their titanic battles.

It was a narrower margin than the men’s 100m final at the same Games (0.12). Indeed, of the Sydney Games’ 12 track events raced over one lap or less – where winning margins of centimetres are more commonly found – only three produced a closer finish.

Tergat had tried everything to beat Haile Gebrselassie. Everything else had failed. This was not madness, though it may have been an inspired act of desperation. How could it be mad? Tergat’s tactics in Sydney took him closer to success than any others he had employed in four major championship finals.

Out of nothing, Tergat almost created something very big.

Read more

 

On the 40th anniversary of Sebastian Coe's record-breaking run, we took a deep dive on the Briton's 1:41.73 iconic 800m world record set in Florence in 1981.

And so to 1981. With no major title to aim for, the emphasis was on achieving spectacular 'one-off' performances. Asked how he had prepared during the winter, Coe replied: "My training mileage is slightly down but there's been more accent on speedwork. I'm going back to basics, trying to improve my 400m speed." That approach hadn't diminished his endurance, though, for he opened his indoor season by winning the UK 3000m title in a personal best of 7:55.2. Two weeks later he smashed the world indoor 800m record with 1:46.0. "I knew I was fit, but not that fit," he enthused.

Read more

 

Looking back at another barrier-breaking performance, we marked the anniversary of the first sub-90-minute clocking in the women's 20km race walk, achieved by Australia's Kerry Saxby-Junna.

“Kerry was an absolute warhorse when it came to racing, and she often took for granted her earlier successes,” Hilliard said. “She was a great character as well and very popular with other athletes.

“She did so much for women’s race walking during her career and made it much more popular than it had been.”

Read more

 

Looking ahead to the Tokyo Olympic Games, we outlined some of the family connections between athletes who are set to compete at this year's Olympics and athletes who featured at Tokyo's last major track and field championships, the 1991 World Championships.

Three years after her Olympic marathon bronze in Seoul, Germany’s Katrin Dorre-Heinig achieved a medal of the same colour in Tokyo, clocking 2:30:10 to finish behind Poland’s Wanda Panfil and Japan’s Sachiko Yamashita. Her impressive career also included three wins each at the London and Tokyo marathons as well as four Osaka Marathon victories.

Her daughter Katharina Steinruck did not originally have ambitions to follow in her mother’s footsteps. "When we spoke about running and I was asked if I wanted to do this as well, one day I replied: ‘Forget about this - never, it is much too tough!’” she said in 2017. But she started to realise her talent at the age of 11 or 12 and in 2016 she ran 2:28:34 for a breakthrough fifth-place performance at the Berlin Marathon.

Read more

 

And in another piece counting down to the Tokyo Olympic Games, we took a look at some of the athletes who are set to make history for their nation.

As is the case at every Olympics, dozens of nations will converge on the track, field and roads in a bid for glory, not only for themselves but also for the nations they represent.

Many events will naturally be dominated by the powerhouses within the sport, but there are several disciplines where medals could be won by athletes from nations that have not yet made much of an impact on the Olympic stage.

If, like many sports fans, you enjoy rooting for the underdog at major events, here are 10 athletes who could make history for their country when they compete in Tokyo next month.

Read more

 

More exciting content is planned for the next few months when our attention will shift to experiencing the sport and feeling inspired.

 

Loading...