I realize there was good competition, some true showdowns, and good racing, but can't ever remember a Weltklasse with ZERO times and field event marks that truly impress. Was it cold, windy and rainy or something?
There was nothing even remotely close to a world or US all-time top 10, was there?
bump
Especially Bondarenko. If he wasn't injured, I hope he never breaks the WR.
Kiprop’s run in the 1500 sums it up. It was like as we have a saying in Britain - ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show, comes the dustcarts.’ One only had to look at the meeting records that kept flashing up after the event to realise what great performances have been recorded at that meeting in the past.
Wasn't it raining at some point?
It looked like it when they showed the replay of the 1500m.
I think people have to get off the obsession with times and marks and look at competition.
Just focus on the competition.
When was the last year that there were no new world records set for either men or women in any T&F event?
I was there. It was not raining. 20oC and still, so perfect conditions all evening. Loaded fields, great atmoshphere with packed and enthusiastic crowd. Many big name winners running good times. 9.90, 44.1, 1.43, 3.30, 8.08 for the men is not a bad set of times and some close, exciting races. US women ran a 4x100m meet and DL record. Field event standards globally are down with a lack of depth of top performers, but it's the end of a pretty long season. Criticism of Bonderenko is crazy. He's been the most dominant male athlete of the year. He's attempted the WR 3 times and not really been close, but he entertains the crowd and has jumped higher than anyone in the last decade.
As for worst weltklasse ever, it was not and I'd be amazed if you could name 3 other athletics meets in 2013 which were better than Zurich.
Letzigrunder wrote:
name 3 other athletics meets in 2013 which were better than Zurich.
Monaco, Rome, and even Eugene if you count both days.
In Eugene, Mutaz cleared 2.40 to beat Drouin's and Kynard's 2.36 in the best DL high jump of the year. Bondarenko cleared 2.41 much later in the season. He's not in a class by himself where he can jerk fans around by setting up 2.46 and quitting after one try.
Weltklasse used to get world records. Now it can't even get a world lead, except Valerie Adams. She was the only one this year out of 18 elite events.
SPSS wrote:
When was the last year that there were no new world records set for either men or women in any T&F event?
1910, insofar as I can tell (that's including all athletics events).
I work in sport, and specifically in performance analysis and doping and blood testing.
Honestly, I think doping deterrents are as high as they have ever been right now. Worlds "looked" like the cleanest and most fair competition I've seen...ever (strong words I nkow). People are saying the same thing about cycling...
This is what cleaner sport looks like - enjoy it, as many (not all) of the correct people are winning, just not in the mind-boggling explosive manner that the general public has been accustomed to with doping.
I'm not disagreeing with the notion that the sport is probably cleaner now than it has been in a while, but my feeling was that there were a good number of exceptional performances in Moscow.
If you compare them to, say, the World Champs in Paris in '03, it was a markedly higher level of competition this year.
Well, we DID probably see the changing of the guards at the 3000 meter hurdles, this was the second time straight that it went to two kenyans who wasn't even in Moscow and it looks like the future might not belong to that Conseslus guy like everyone thought before Moscow. Methinks he's to bulky, the new Yego guy is much slimmer and has a higher cadence over the home strech, like Ezekiel Kemboi and other previous champs...
I thought the meet was great. Great competition. Marks aren't too important to me. Competition is.
1) Meritt and Kirani James Entertaining Again with Merritt winning the $50,000.
2) Dibaba vs Defar finally squaring off and it being for $50,000 and coming down to the last 100.
3) Great women's 800. Coming down to the final 5 meters with $50,000 on the line.
4) People are negative on the high jump. We still had a World record attempt.
5) Usain Bolt being challenged but winning.
6) Nick Symmonds winning good for the Americans
7) 110 Hurdles is always one of my favorites and we had a stacked field with Oliver winning.
Very competitive meet with nearly all the stars and some very close races.
You missed some great throws apparently.
Yeah, just seeing Bondarenko trying for a 20-year-old world record was great -- it's been a long, long time since anyone even thought about that. The great thing about the vertical jumps is that on a world record attempt we know instantly that if they clear it's a world record. Every other event it's unclear it's a record until the results come up.
Drugs use is higher than it's ever been.
Even so, no world records?
This proves conclusively that drugs don't help people run any faster, but in fact make them run slower.
Lets not forget that with injuries of different sorts to:
Bolt
Blake
Felix
Jeter
Aries Merritt (earlier)
Rudisha
Makhloufi
and whatever the deal with Uceny is
And then there's Powell, Sherone Simpson, VCB, Gay, Baptiste, dozens of Turks for you-know-what
...explosive performance are going to be "kind of" hard to come by.
But I fear we are looking at the "new normal" with biological passports and enhanced drug testing. The status quo was making a mockery of the sport (29% that they know were cheating and they blocked the report? Come on), but I fear that the new normal minus certain drug-assisted performances is something fans might not find so appealing.
Post Olympic or WC's
Defar vs Dibaba can't be too bad though!
it was perfect weather and 22C/72F.