The Berlin World Championships .. a landmark in the history of the mother of all sports .
“10 million Germans watched the race of the era” and a billion worldwide .
“The Bolt phenomenon” was the talk of the city, and the crowd success was a gain for the Germans .
Ethiopia’s Bekele is cut from the cloth of legends, while Russia’s Isinbayeva fell from her ivory tower .
Qatar’s promotional pavilion .. a message of love and peace, and an appointment to meet .
Germany once again cemented its global standing as a “sporting stronghold” and a formidable force not easily overcome, a fact made clear by the resounding success of the 12th World Athletics Championships – “Berlin 2009” – in terms of crowds, performances and organisation, with events run exactly as planned and to Germany’s high-quality standards. Organisers revealed yesterday that the brilliant results produced by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and his overwhelming popularity, alongside the three medals won by Germany at the start of the championships, had a major impact on attendance at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, where the championships are being held, and on the size of the television audience 
for the event. Organisers said the number of fans who attended the Olympic Stadium over the first two days reached 142,259, while around 140,000 fans came to the “Kulturstadion” fan zone next to the Brandenburg Gate, where the men’s and women’s race walks were held. Germany’s ZDF television network recorded a rating of about 33.4 percent (around ten million viewers) and a billion viewers worldwide during the men’s 100m race in which Bolt won his gold medal while setting a new world record (9.58 seconds). That made it the highest audience rating in Germany for any final. Fans were also delighted by the victories of the German stars competing at the championships, who won two silver medals – the first for Jennifer Oeser in the heptathlon and the second for her compatriot Nadine Kleinert in the shot put – in addition to the bronze medal won by Ralf Bartels in the shot put. Germany’s tally in athletics at the 2008 Beijing Olympics had been limited to a single bronze medal. Senegal’s Lamine Diack, president of the IAAF, expressed his great delight at watching one of the finest races in the history of athletics – the men’s 100m – and also praised the wonderful atmosphere prevailing at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Organisers said they had sold 336,000 tickets out of a total of 500,000 tickets available for the championships.
Bolt steals the spotlight .
Jamaican sprint legend Bolt appears to have stolen the show in the city of Berlin – wherever you go you see his pictures, giant statues and the promotional gifts produced specially for him by his official sponsor, the global Nike company, amid a fierce promotional battle with German giant Adidas to attract the world’s biggest stars and record-holders.
Bekele, conqueror of time .
Outstanding Ethiopian runner Bekele has come close to sharing star billing at the World Championships alongside Bolt, having written his name firmly into
the history of the World Athletics Championships by winning gold in the 10,000m. Bekele, who confirmed himself the king of the long distances, covered the distance in 26:46.31, setting a new championship record and erasing his own previous mark of 26:49.57, set in Saint-Denis, France, in 2003, though he still holds the world record of 26:17.53, set on 26 August 2005 in Brussels.
It was Bekele’s fourth consecutive world title. He already held three Olympic titles – the 10,000m in Athens, and the 5,000m and 10,000m in Beijing – as well as 11 world cross-country titles, after his world titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007, matching the achievement of his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie, who won four world titles between 1993 and 1999.
Kenya’s Charles Kamathi was the only man to break Ethiopian dominance of the event, snatching gold in Edmonton, Canada, in 2001 from Gebrselassie, who had to settle for third place.
Bekele, who confirmed he would also compete in the 5,000m, said, “I knew I would win the race one lap before the end. I had great confidence in my ability because I had prepared well and gone through tough training. I am happy and proud for my country”.
He added “This fourth title is a source of pride for me. I have proven that I have great strength. My aim was to stay at the back to keep an eye on the race, and one lap before the end I decided to attack”.
Bekele has yet to lose in 12 races over 10,000m, ever since his title win at the Hengelo meeting in 2003, after which he claimed two Olympic titles and three world titles, and twice broke the world record for the event, most recently in Brussels.
Bekele has run the 10,000m in around 27 minutes on seven occasions, his slowest being 27:08.33 at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, and he has won every major championship since the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Silver went to Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese in 26:50.12, and bronze to Kenya’s Moses Ndiema Masai in 26:57.39.
“Major disappointment for the butterfly Isinbayeva “
As the saying goes, nothing lasts forever, and so it proved in sport. Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva, holder of the event world record (5.05 m) and champion at the previous two World Championships as well as the last two Olympic Games, lost her world crown and fell from her ivory tower, after the woman with 26 world records to her name failed to clear 4.75 m on her first attempt and 4.80 m over two more attempts.
Gold instead went to Poland’s Anna Rogowska, who won the pole vault title with a clearance of 4.75 m, while silver went jointly to America’s Chelsea Johnson and Poland’s Monika Pyrek, both on 4.65 m. It was the second time this season Rogowska had got the better of Isinbayeva, after the first occasion at the London meeting in late July, when Isinbayeva finished second behind the Pole, who took first place by clearing 4.68 m, the same height the Russian star cleared, though she needed three attempts against her rival’s two, before both failed to clear 4.78 m. That had been Isinbayeva’s first defeat in 19 competitions, dating back to February 2008, when she competed at the Bydgoszcz indoor meeting in Poland, where first place went to her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova. Isinbayeva had dominated the pole vault ever since winning her first Olympic title in Athens in 2004, but her results this season have been disappointing, especially as her best mark of the year is 4.85 m, some 20 centimetres short of her own world record. Isinbayeva said “I have no explanation for what happened, everything felt great and I was confident in my ability and that I would win the title”, adding “I have no excuse today, even though this competition mattered a great deal to me. I hope this result pushes me to achieve better in the future and get back to my level”.
A capital of love and peace welcomes the world .
Crowds flock to the Doha 2010 pavilion .
Embodying the spirit of love, peace and togetherness, the Doha 2010 World Indoor Championships pavilion continued its major promotional mission in the city of Berlin on the sidelines of the World Athletics Championships, with the pavilion seeing large crowds flocking in to collect the promotional booklets and publications provided by the young staff running it, led by Abdulrahman Al Dosari, head of public relations and marketing at the Qatar Olympic Committee, and Hassan Al Mohammadi, media director, along with the rest of the team, who played a major role in introducing the crowds to the State of Qatar and the World Indoor Championships, besides receiving VIP guests who came throughout the day to learn about the latest preparations for the championships.
Fuelled by professional promotion and pride in history and heritage .
“The war of the Olympic candidate cities ignites from Berlin “
“Young Berlin, recovering from a senseless war”, was scarred by its flames .. and is now witnessing another kind of battle, this time fuelled by professional rivalry in its finest sense, since heritage and authenticity have their own place on the pavements of human history .. and here are the cities bidding for the 2016 Olympics entering a promotional contest in Berlin, fuelled by nothing less than top-quality professional promotion, as the cities of (Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Madrid in Spain, Tokyo in Japan, and Chicago in the United States)
compete in showcasing their capabilities and credentials to host the greatest sporting festival held worldwide every four years. The four competing pavilions drew huge crowds to the public plaza set up at the entrance of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, with the four cities showing off their creative abilities, natural and historical riches, and heritage and authenticity, each hoping for the chance to organise an exceptional Olympics .. meanwhile, those responsible for Rio de Janeiro’s bid appeared extremely optimistic and hopeful of winning the right to host the first Olympics on the South American continent. Carlos Roberto Osorio, executive secretary of the Brazilian bid committee, said the committee had submitted a bid capable of competing strongly. Osorio stressed the success of the plan to present Rio de Janeiro’s bid to the International Olympic Committee through a high-quality technical project and political talks aimed at supporting the Brazilian city’s bid. Some experts predicted that Rio de Janeiro would go into the meeting scheduled for the second of October in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, as the strongest candidate to host the Olympics, ahead of the Spanish capital Madrid, Japan’s Tokyo and the American city of Chicago. The absence of any previous Olympic host city from South America on that map appeared to have influenced the 93 committee members who attended this meeting, representing 90 percent of the total members entitled to vote in choosing the host city.
Al Hamad warns from Berlin: Arab athletics is dying .
Officials called upon to reflect and translate the hopes and aspirations of the fans into results .
Arab athletes have a glorious sporting heritage, and it would be “shameful” to squander it .
Major General Dahlan Al Hamad, vice-president of the IAAF and the Asian Athletics Association .. taking part in organising the World Athletics Championships as one of the leading figures in the mother of all sports .. issued an important warning to officials running athletics across all Arab countries, criticising the state the sport had reached, with poor results and declining performances from most of the participating teams and athletes, noting that he would not have raised these observations were it not for the fact that Arabs have a glorious heritage in the greatest of all sports, stressing that problems, obstacles, complacency, factionalism and a lack of seriousness among administrators were among the disastrous causes behind this disappointing decline. Al Hamad called on officials to draw up strategies and plans to translate the hopes and aspirations of the fans into tangible results and achieve their goals .. noting that all Arab countries possess the talent and expertise capable of translating this into satisfactory results that confirm our sporting progress. On the participation of Qatar’s national team .. Al Hamad wished Qatar’s athletes success and good fortune as they took on the global challenge, despite his belief that the task would be difficult given the readiness of the world’s champions .. on his impressions of Germany’s organisation of the championships of the era .. Al Hamad said the Germans certainly have their own school of thought, an organisational approach and a glorious sporting heritage, which is why the athletics family under Diack’s leadership had been confident in advance of this success, describing it as a gain for the sport that would boost its popularity worldwide, given that Germany is considered a global centre of gravity that enjoys quality organisation and credibility in handling every matter. Al Hamad predicted impressive results from the world’s champions taking part and improvements in many world records, in an atmosphere of comfortable sporting conditions with everything made available to everyone to give their best and show sporting dedication in pursuit of their goals, in a sporting spirit that reflects Olympic values and the nobility of the complete athlete .
