'Dunaway's Worlds'

When I told my friends in Austin, Texas I was going to spend more than two weeks in Paris, they all said, "You lucky guy! You'll gain ten pounds eating in all those great restaurants." And truth to tell, I was planning, and expecting, to eat up a storm. Jim Dunaway gives us his daily, most individual look at events in and around the Stade.

I went through my file of articles about Paris restaurants, read guide books on where to eat, and solicited suggestions from friends who had lived in the City of Light or been there recently. Figuratively, I salivated. No, make that literally. If Paris is a moveable feast, I intended to be the guest of honour.

Who was I kidding? With the competition ending at 10pm. or later every night, a half-hour or more ride on the bus or Metro, and two or three stories to write before going to bed, I've ended up eating almost nothing but sandwiches and soft drinks for dinner, and I've still ended up going to bed at 3, 4 or 5am

Next day I get up groggy, but game. I hope I can at least have a nice lunch at a decent bistro or brasserie, or perhaps visit the Louvre for an hour or two (although spending only an hour at the world's greatest art gallery is like climbing 30 steps up the Eiffel Tower and thinking you've been to the top). But there's no time for lunching nicely or getting near the Louvre;  I've got a couple of press conferences to go to, or an interview halfway across town at one of the training tracks. And suddenly, it's time for the day's competition to begin. And that means sandwiches again...and again and again...again.

Sandwiches? In Paris?  Give me a break! Next time I come, I'm leaving my computer at home.

Men's 800m, simply the best quality

The best field in the Championships is, I think, the men's 800 metres. On Thursday's start lists, I counted 24 entrants with personal bests under 1:45.00 - and thirteen of them had PBs under 1:44.00. After eight cut-throat races that night, and three more even more cut-throat semi-finals on Friday, eight men have advanced to Sunday's final, eight men with an average PB of 1:43.17. And if you exclude the two relative unknowns - Osmar dos Santos and Justus Koech - the average PB of the other six 'veterans' is only 1:42.03!  Hey, I'm not saying that dos Santos or Koech can't win (remember Nils Schumann in Sydney three years ago),  but they sure are moving into fast company. I love the 800; it's my favourite race.

Amazing crowds in the Stade

I'm amazed at the crowds here. Night after night, nothing seems to escape their notice. It's like a giant organism - a beehive or an ant colony - in that it seems to possess a collective sensibilty, and behave as a collective entity. When even the slightest thing happens in the arena, the reaction is almost instantaneous, and it comes from all parts of the stadium at the same time. These people watch - really watch - what's going on, and they don't miss a thing. It's the most attentive track and field crowd I've ever seen.

It's also a generous crowd, generous with approval and applause for the athletes' efforts, and that includes the blind, wheelchair and amputee athletes. Almost every competitor who comes through the (athlete/media) Mixed Zone says something like, "This crowd is great!" or "They're awesome!" or  "The crowd really helped me." One American girl said, "When I compete, I never hear the crowd. But I sure could hear them today!"

I expected them to cheer for the French athletes. I'm impressed that they cheer for all the athletes.