Top athletes lose their titles, Kenyans dominate long-distance events


DAEGU -- The Daegu World Championships in Athletics ended Sunday night after nine days of fierce competition in 47 events which produced a lot of top-class performances, memorable races and dramatic stories to remember.

This year’s championships saw 1,945 athletes from 202 countries, by far the largest number in its history, competing at the Daegu Stadium.

During the nine-day competition more than 450,000 spectators, exceeding the target, turned out at the stadium to celebrate the world’s biggest track and field event, according to the Daegu Organizing Committee.

Although track and field is not popular in Korea, Daegu embraced the competition, said Cho Hae-nyoung, co-president of the organizing committee.

“I was a bit worried about the number of spectators, but we’ve had a full stadium during the competition and people showed great enthusiasm,” Cho said during the press conference on Sunday.

The 200-meters winner Usain Bolt of Jamaica also spoke highly of the stadium atmosphere.

“I must say the crowd gave me a lot of love and it made me smile. It was wonderful, and thanks to the fans it was really a wonderful championship,” Bolt said after his 200m final race on Saturday.

Curse of the cover

One of the marks of this year’s championships was that many biggest names in athletics lost their titles, in what was described as the “curse of the cover.”

The organizer printed a daily guidebook, informing spectators of the ones to watch that day. For six of the first seven days, athletes on the program’s cover failed to win the gold.

The curse started out with Australian pole vault champion Steve Hooker, who failed to make it into a qualifying jump this year. Then came Bolt, the world-record holder and defending 100m champion, as the 25-year-old Jamaican was disqualified at the 100m final with a false-start.

Dayron Robles of Cuba, the reigning 110m hurdles champion, and Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbaeva also fell victim.

Kenyans dominance in long distance

On the final day of the competition, Kenyans showed again their supremacy in long-distance by winning the gold and silver in men’s marathon.

Defending champion Abel Kirui won the race with a comfortable lead in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 15 seconds, followed by compatriot Vincent Kipruto with 2:10:06. 

This year’s distance running has been dominated by the east Africans. The Kenyans made a clean sweep in the women’s marathon and women’s 10,000m earlier in the championships.

There was also gold for David Rudisha in the men‘s 800m, and Ezekiel Kemboi won the men’s 3,000m steeplechase. Also, on Saturday, Asbel Kiprop added the world 1500m title to his Olympic crown, leading another Kenyan 1-2 finish.

Meanwhile, Russia also had a sweep at race walking at this year’s championships. The Russians won all three walks in Daegu and had two athletes on each podium for six of the nine overall medals.

Bolt said many top athletes, including himself, have learned a lesson in Daegu, noting that many are now going to “get serious” for 2012 Olympics.

“A lot of champions, who have gotten dethroned, missed out on a medal podium, are going to be working hard to get back their titles and defend their titles,” he said.

By Oh Kyu-wook  (596story@heraldcorp.com)