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| Tuesday, 19 August 2003 |
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Athletic fever gradually catching up Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from France PARIS, Monday.- The French capital here is gradually catching the athletic fever as thousands of athletes, officials, media personalities, track & field fans and guests arrive here for the 9th IAAF World Championships which starts Stade de France later this week. The Paris airport too has turned out to be a busy place and the World Championship volunteers working there expects ever greater arrivals in capacity flights from all over the world. Flights heading to the French capital have been heavily overbooked, mainly with the foreigners heading for the mega event. The Volunteers Centre and the Main Accreditation Centre have been open for nearly two weeks now but they would be doing bulk of their service work in the three weeks ahead. The Stade de France and its immediate vicinity have become a hive of activity in the run-up to the opening of the preparations are in full swing. With just a few days until the 203-nation athletic extravaganza gets underway, the Organising Committee have been doubling their efforts to ensure the official sites around the arena are up and running. The landscape around the stadium is changing fast There are a total of 3,700 men and women of all walks of life, mainly youngsters, working for the Volunteers Centre, which is located not far from the Stade de France adjoining stadium and Gates J and K. As of tomorrow, the Centre will be providing reception, information and catering facilities, together with personal lockers for all Volunteers. The Main Accreditation is to be found just nearby. In the days before competition opens, the Centre will be dealing with a relentless flow of visitors, given that no fewer than 20,000 people have been granted accreditation. The Media Centre, situated at the south west end of the stadium will swung into full action from today. A host of temporary structures have sprung up on the Stade de France concourse including three production areas and the stands that will form the area given over to the World Championships partners. While the ticket sales are on its last 15% allocations left, the spectator attention would undoubtedly be on the fastest man and woman of the meet. The men's 100m event is wide open, but the women's short sprint is just as hard to call in the absence of Olympic gold medallist Marion Jones. The world's fastest man and new husband of American triple Olympic gold medallist Jones, Tim Montgomery is gearing for the men's 100m gold as his sprint queen wife and new-born baby looks on. The world record holder pulled out of the fourth Golden League meeting in Berlin and cut short his European tour after coming in sixth in Stockholm and failing to get past the heats at the London Grand Prix in Crystal Palace. Paternity has clearly taken its toll on one of the favourites for 100m gold in Paris Saint-Denis. Montgomery has been accelerating on top gear while most other speed merchants have also been out of sorts. Reigning world champion and Olympic gold medallist, Maurice Greene has dipped under 10 seconds just once this season he 12th fastest time in history) may well be the last time one could see him under starter's orders until the World Championship heats in Paris Saint-Denis. (9.94 in early June). The women's 100m dash is an event looked forward to a greater extend by Sri Lanka sports lovers as their only Olympic medallist in 52 years, Susanthika Jayasinghe competes. Despite coming out with her career best 100m timing of 11.04 seconds last year, the 27-year-old Lankan lass may find the competition little too high. But certainly, she could well be a main contender for a place in the victory podium in women's 200m, the event in which she gave Sri Lanka its one and only World Championship medal in 1997. Chandra Sturrup's challenge for the million dollar prize shared out to the athletes that win the same event at all six Golden League meetings came to end in Berlin. After five consecutive wins in the 100m, including three in Golden League events, she had to settle for third spot in a time of 10.88 behind American duo Kelli White (10.84) and Chryste Gaines (10.86). US champ White's win in Berlin probably makes her slight favorite for the World Championships, but Sturrup, Gaines, Christine Arron and Zhanna Block, who did not run in Berlin, will all be harboring hopes of gold in France. |
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