Familiarity has bred a bit of contempt, reports Martin Gillingham
If the Olympic movement has reason to thank track and field’s late boss Dr Primo Nebiolo, then it is for his decision 10 years ago to double the frequency of the world athletics championships. It was a move motivated more by Nebiolo’s greed for broadcasting rights fees and sponsorship than securing the long-term health of the sport. And it worked for a while. But, a decade on, the championships have become a devalued currency that fail to stir the blood in the way they used to.
The 2001 edition of the now biennial world athletics championships open in Edmonton, Canada, in the early hours of Saturday morning. For the winners there awaits a cheque for $60 000 and the prestige of following in the footsteps of former champions like Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Marita Koch and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. But no one will be kidding themselves. World titles are nice to have, but not the cherished titles they once were.
When Lewis, Moses and Koch sprinted to gold at the inaugural championships in Helsinki 18 years ago, it was the first time all the world’s best had met on the same track in championship competition for 11 years. What’s more, they knew they wouldn’t do so again for another four years when the second world championships took place in Rome. Back then, thanks as much to Cold War politicians as the sporting entrepreneurs, the world championships were the sport’s centrepiece. Politically motivated boycotts in 1976, 1980 and 1984 ensured that for the first two championships they were a more significant date on the calendar than even the Olympic Games.
But nowadays a global championships, carrying either the International Amateur Athletic Federation or International Olympic Committee’s sanction, take place in three years out of every four. Chuck in a biennial world indoor championships, complete with annual world cross-country championships now held over various distances and world half-marathon championships, and it’s led to a “world champion on every street corner” scenario.
All this said, Edmonton is sure to celebrate some worthy champions. The easiest two to call go in the shortest events of all where Edmonton’s 800m altitude should help shave off a few hundredths of a second. In recent weeks Maurice Greene has been strapping up his lower limbs like a wide receiver but assuming they mask nothing more sinister than two sets of highly developed quadriceps, then he’s odds-on to complete a hat-trick of men’s 100m titles.
Marion Jones should be under no more of a threat to achieve the same feat in the women’s 100m. The games were a torrid time for Jones who had to cope with the demands of going for gold in five events while everything around her was falling apart. Jones has since announced her separation from husband CJ Hunter, though it is to be presumed that cracks must have already started appearing when the pair arrived in Sydney. Throughout the two-year marriage Hunter was an overbearing presence wherever she went he was sure to follow but he became even more of a burden when it was revealed that the reason he wasn’t competing at the games had nothing to do with the injury he’d been feigning but rather a string of failed drugs tests. Of course, it’s inconceivable that Jones didn’t know the true reason for her husband’s absence from competition, but only the most brutal observers would condemn her for supporting Hunter’s charade. Thankfully for Jones, her unbeaten record over 100m has outlasted her marriage by more than two years and with no distractions this week there’s no reason to think it might end here.
Another athlete seeking a hat-trick is Hicham El Guerrouj. This will be the Moroccan’s last metric mile before stepping up to the 5 000m in which he makes his debut at Zurich in a fortnight’s time. El Guerrouj made a horrible mess of the Olympic final last year when Noah Ngeny got the better of him. But the defending champion has been spared Ngeny’s company by the Kenyan selectors whose megalomaniacal tendencies are legend. Ngeny wanted to race against El Guerrouj in London 12 days ago while the Kenyan authorities demanded his presence at a training camp. Ngeny insisted on seeing out his contractual obligation to the London meeting’s promoter so the Kenyans dropped him.