World Athletic Champs 100 days away

by | posted: May 6, 2009 8 comments

In a little over 3 months from now Germany’s capital will come alive when thousands of athletes from all over the world converge on Berlin for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The world is now more aware of Jamaica’s sprinting prowess. Will we falter or will we cement our place for many years to come with another amazing sprinting performance from both the men and the women?

It’s no surprise that I am an athletics fan and in case you didn’t know the last World Champions was held in Osaka Japan. Back then the world knew very little about Usain Bolt but the fastest man on the track at that time was still a Jamaican, I’m sure you remember him – Asafa Powell. He went on to not only lose the 100m final to Tyson Gay but he seemingly gave up mid-race and received harsh criticism from local track and field fans (myself included) but ironically only a few days later he went on to lower the then 100m world record to 9.74 seconds in a big money grand prix meet in Europe (video). Jamaica still hauled away 10 medals from Osaka including a very memorable gold medal in the 100m for women by Jamaica’s most decorated professional  athlete (in recent competitions) Veronica Campbell.

It’s still early days yet but things are kinda shaky right now for some of the big names in Jamaica’s track team with Usain Bolt involved in a car crash recently, Asafa without a competitive race in a while, Veronica sidelined with an injury and Shelly-ann still not fully recovered after removing her appendix I do believe though that come August 15 the Jamaica track team will be even stronger than the one fielded for the Olympic Games last year and just like we did in the bird’s nest in Beijing we will be setting Berlin on fire!

12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Berlin 2009

[jamaica]

Tags: , , , , ,

Jamaipanese

Kirk lives in Kingston, Jamaica and is an avid Japan enthusiast. Since starting Jamaipanese.com in February 2006 and visiting Japan in September 2011 his knowledge and understanding of Japan has grown and he enjoys sharing his interests with his readers.

Related Posts

Advertisement

  • ESTEBAN AGOSTO REID

    Looking forward to this event. Thanks for reminding me. Nuff respect!!

  • http://ebchib.blogspot.com chib

    I am the great fan of Usain Bolt.
    I felt bad after that car crash. Hope he will be at his best at that time.
    [angel]

  • Kurt

    I’ll be watching like mad….now mi envy mi colleague dem assigned to Berlin…dammit

    wat does “most decorated” mean by the way?

    • http://www.jamaipanese.com Jamaipanese

      it means she has won the most World Champs and Olympic Games medals for Jamaica as an individual athlete.

      • Kurt

        alas young warrior, may i remind u that while VC has been excellent and very succesful, she has yet to reach the records set by the most successful Jamaican track athlete of all time, and the one VC and her cohorts consider their inspiration and standard.

        Again showing my old age –

        1. Medals won as individual competing for Jamaica (World Championships, Olympics, Commonwealth Games in that order):
        Merlene Ottey – 10,6,4; VC-B – 3,3,2

        2. Medals won as part of a relay team competing for Jamaica (World Championships, Olympics, Commonwealth Games in that order):
        Merlene Ottey – 4,2,0; VC-B – 2,2,0

        3. Gold Medals won (individual,relay):
        Merlene Ottey – 5,1; VC-B – 3,1

        4. Overall medals won under Jamaican flag
        Merlene Ottey – 26; Veronica Cambell-Brown – 12

        You could also add VCB’s 4 golds from the World Juniors but then u mite need to add Merlene’s World Indoor Champs medals. And might I add, Merlene Ottey is Jamaica’s first and maybe only World Record Holder (21.87 for the 200m Indoor record).

        This is why Merlene is still the sprint queen and as VCB put it “was and is my role model.” Good thing Veronica has the years ahead of her.

  • http://www.jamaipanese.com Jamaipanese

    thanks for the lesson Kurt! I guess I should add “most recent recent” in there somewhere :D

  • Kurt

    2 annotations to the above –
    @ #4 I clearly mean of the 3 events i listed (but there’s also CAC, Pan-Am etc)
    @ sec to last paragraph line 4 add female to the end…duh i type too fast i know

  • http://www.altiusdirectory.com G Rajesh

    Hi, 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics is going to start from August 15th 2009 to 23rd August 2009.

    Host City : Berlin, Germany
    Events : 47
    Opening Ceremony : 15th August 2009
    Closing Ceremony : 23rd August 2009
    Main Stadium : Olympiastadion
    Total Athletes : 1,800
    No.Of. Days : 9 Days Championships
    Disciplines : 24
    Min competitions per Day : 3 Competitions
    Max Competitions per Day : 7 Competitions