IAAF C'ship catches worldwide attention

Athletic fever across the globe is at its peak with the cream of track and field 'newsmakers' in action in the German capital, at the IAAF World Championship which will be continued until Sunday.

The excitement and enthusiasm it generates and worldwide attention it attracts is only second to the Olympic Games.

The World Championship is being held once in two years and ever since its introduction nearly a quarter century ago, it has gathered momentum and has turned out to be the prime event of the IAAF international calendar.

At the early stages, a world championship medal was a dream for Sri Lanka and it was none other than Susanthika Jayasinghe who made it a reality. She not only made it a reality but also bagged her second medal before her retirement after last year's Olympic Games in China.

It was Jayasinghe's and of course her country's first ever World Championship medal and 12 years ago she opened a new chapter in Sri Lanka athletics. She bagged the women's 200m silver medal, finishing behind Zahana Pintusevich of Ukraine at the 1997 IAAF World Championships in Athens, Greece.

Even the Lankan media hardly paid any attention to the World Championship at the early stages and the only Lankan media personality to report this most cherished moment in Sri Lanka athletics was the Editor of ANCL Sports Magazine - Kreeda, Sarath Prematillake.

Ever since, Sri Lanka's hopes were high at the World Championships with Jayasinghe, Damayanthi Darsha, Sugath Tillakaratne, Sriyani Kulawansa and Rohan Pradeep Kumara as our trump cards. But it has been only Jayasinghe who has brought glory to Sri Lanka at the World Championship history and none of the Lankan elite athletes have been unable even to make it to the final of any event.

Jayasinghe, who went only to win her country's first Olympic medal in 52 years in Sydney 2000. after that 1997 World Championship glory, produced her second World Championship medal in Osaka, 2007.

Incidentally there was a ten year gap between her two medals and that alone speaks volumes of devotion and dedication that the Lankan women sprinter had to survive in the international arena. It is not an easy task for a sprinter to maintain the international medal winning rating for a period of over ten years and Jayasinghe just did that when she won women's 200m bronze medal at the Osaka World Championship two years ago.

It was nice to follow the fortunes of world class athletes and to witness those great moments and establishing of new world records during the past decade.

As a sports media personality, this is my fifth successive World Championship in Athletics, having covered the Edmonton 2001, Paris 2003, Helsinki 2005 and Osaka 2007 global meetings.

But the best event in my 24-year-old career as a writer, was last week's men's 100m final of the current World Championship in the German capital. Jamaican Usain Bolt went like a rocket to better his own mark of 9.69 seconds and establish a new world record timing of 9.58 seconds. Thus, the Olympic triple gold medalist Bolt became the fastest man ever on earth.

It is unfortunate that I didn't have any of my fellow Sri Lankan media colleagues to witness that great moment. Channaka de Silva (Sports Editor - Daily Mirror) and Asoka Goonetillake (Associate Editor - Divaina) who were with me in the World Championship series are notable absentees.

The Jamaican challenge seems to be too much for the Americans to beat with the huge success they had in the 100m events. Bolt was simply invincible in humbling Tyson Gay.

In the women's 100m, it was Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser who almost set a new World Championship record.

In a final which figured four Jamaican women, Fraser clocked an impressive 10.73 seconds which fell short of American Marion Jones' World Championship record (10.70) by three hundredth of a second. Nevertheless, it was this year's leading timing in women's 100m, making Fraser the joint third in the all-time top performers' list behind Florence Griffith-Joyner (10.49) and Marion Jones (10.70).

But young Sanya Richards helped USA to partially regain its lost supremacy when she bagged the women's 400m gold medal.

It was the dethroned champion Christine Ohuruogu who put it best. "It was a good run and a brilliant time. I think she just wanted it more than the rest of us." That was a great statement indeed from an Olympic champion of high calibre and shows her great sporting qualities.

Richards has been heading the women's 400m world ranking for five successive seasons but she has never been fortunate enough to become a world champion in her pet event. Her long-felt dream finally came true in Berlin as she bagged her first major championships gold.

It seems that the Americans are fully concentrating on the 100m and 400m relay to reinstate their athletic powerhouse.

Perhaps that may be the reason for Tyson Gay's eleventh hour pull out of the men's 200m, preventing another head to head meeting with superman Bolt. Gay said he is withdrawing from men's 200m in order to concentrate fully on the men's 4 x 100m relay.

Earlier last week, Russian Olga Kaniskina became the first woman in history to win back-to-back World Championship walk titles. She achieved this rare feat with a masterful display in the shadow of the historic Brandenburg Gate.

The reigning Olympic 20km champion secured her second successive world title by a commanding 49-second margin in one hour, 28 minutes and nine seconds to further cement her growing stature as one of the all-time great race walkers.

Ireland's Olive Loughnane enjoyed the greatest moment of her lengthy career as she took a surprise silver medal in 1:28:58.