2013 IAAF World Athletics Championships review - Positives for many after a dark summer

By Simon Wright - Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

The 2013 IAAF World Athletics Championships came to their conclusion in Moscow this afternoon, and it has been a positive for the sport that has been rocked recently by scandals and cheats.  Some stars came to the Russian capital and enhanced their reputations; others fell by the wayside through injury and a loss of form.

Athletics has gone through a tough summer.  The Diamond League events have not lived upto expectations and the sport went through its biggest raft of drug scandals since the aftermath of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.  Not only that, but it involved some big names.  Former Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, Kelly-Ann Baptiste and top male sprinters Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell were among those to test positive for performance enhancing drugs.  All four have been caught which does show the system is working and that cheats don’t prosper.  The sport will move on from these scandals and I personally hope the book and lifetime bans from athletics follow for these four former stars of the track.

For Team GB, a total of six medals in total might seem like a grave disappointment, but in a post-Olympic year, there is real hope for the next golden generation to ensure the legacy from London 2012 is in safe hands.  Statistically, the performance wasn’t as strong as the team that went to Daegu in South Korea two years ago, but there was one extra gold medal than there was in Asia back in 2011.

Stars of the squad

The stars of the Team GB squad were Mo Farah and Christine Ohuruogu.  Farah underlined his superiority as the most dominant long-distance runner as he backed up his tremendous Olympics double last year by repeating the feat in Moscow.  In 2011, he had lost out in the 10,000m final to Ibrahim Jelan of Ethiopia and on day one, the two could hardly be split again over the same distance.  However, this is Farah at the peak of his powers and he held on for the gold that was missing from his outstanding collection.  He successfully defended his 5,000m title too, despite the best efforts of the former dominant nations over these distances in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Team captain Christine Ohuruogu set a great example, and won 400m gold

Christine (pictured) was the Team GB captain and she took on the role with great assurance and confidence.  Often overlooked when it comes to taking the acclaim she deserves, Ohuruogu produced the finish of the championships.  In the women’s 400m final, her amazing surge in the final 10m saw her edge out chief rival Amantle Montsho from Botswana to win back the gold medal she’d last won at the worlds in Osaka back in 2007.  She also did it by breaking Kathy Cooke’s long-standing British record over 400m.

The 4x400m female relay squad were hurt by Perri Shakes-Drayton’s knee injury she picked up in the final of the 400m hurdles.  The quartet of Eilidh Child, Ohuruogu, Shana Cox and Margaret Adeoye battled on hard though to win the bronze medal.  Tiffany Porter finally won a major medal in the women’s 100m hurdles.  She ran a personal best to come home third in the final, as Australian Sally Pearson was denied the gold by the young American Brianna Rollins.  There was initially another medal in the men’s 4x100m relay on the final day, but it was taken away after an illegal changeover in the race, meaning it is the sixth time in the last seven attempts that the British male squad have either failed to finish or been disqualified from a major championships race over this distance.  However, the sixth medal came later for the girls in the women's 4x100m relay after France were disqualified, giving the youngsters a deserved bronze medal.  

Disappointments and bright signs

There were disappointments for the British squad.  Dai Greene’s defence of the 400m hurdles title he won in grand style in Daegu have been damaged by an injury-hit campaign.  He failed to make it past the semi-final stage.  Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford failed to qualify for the Moscow final after rushing back from a hamstring injury sustained in the Diamond League event in Paris and the performances in the field events were a major disappointment.  Only London 2012 bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz made a final and despite reaching the same height he achieved a year ago for bronze in the men’s high jump – he was only eighth in the final this year as the competition increases.

For the disappointments though, there were great signs for the future too.  William Sharman finished fifth in the men’s 110m hurdles final, and so did Andrew Osagie in the men’s 800m final.  The 4x400m male relay squad narrowly missed out on a medal to come fourth, and were cheated out of the medals by a Russian quartet who should have been kicked out for clearly running out of their lane in the semi-finals.  It was fourth too for women’s 1500m runner Hannah England, as she proved her credentials again after an injury-hit 2012 meant she couldn’t build on the shock silver she won in Daegu.  In the absence of Jessica Ennis-Hill through injury, Katarina Johnson-Thompson achieved four individual PB’s on her way to a superb fifth in the women’s heptathlon and Adam Gemili and James Dasaolu reached the 200m and 100m finals to show British sprinting is on its way back after a lean few years.

Bolt does it again

Another three gold medals for the king of sprinting - Usain Bolt

There was only one man who was going to deliver on a worldwide scale and I think you might have heard of him before.  He goes by the name of Usain Bolt.  The Jamaican (pictured) turned up in Moscow without a serious challenger and leaves with another three gold medals without being at his starring best.  He ran 9.78m on a thundery night last Sunday to regain the 100m crown he lost to an unbelievable false start in Korea in 2011.  Bolt backed it up in the 200m to cruise to gold, and he anchored the Jamaican team home to victory again in the 4x100m relay.  He now has eight gold medals in just three World Athletics Championships, and has matched the record of 10 medals in total at the IAAF event, held previously by Carl Lewis.  The only botch on the Bolt copybook was there was no world record this time around.  In fact, there was not a single world record at these championships, the first time in the world championships proud history.  Some good things have to end, as the American team might have scooped up 25 medals, but were beaten in the medal table to top spot by an inspired home nation.  It is the first time the Americans have finished off the top of the medals since being beaten by the same country in the 2001 edition in Edmonton, Canada.

Bolt will have to share some of the worldwide honours with fellow Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.  She also won a triple gold, though her 200m title was overshadowed by a hamstring injury in the final for her main American rival Allyson Felix.  There was another discus title for the charismatic German Robert Harting and a fourth women’s world championship shot put gold for the awesome Kiwi Valerie Adams, who produced the most dominant performance in any individual event.

Some stars fell by the wayside.  Olympic 110m hurdles champion Aries Merritt produced a clumsy run to sixth in the final in Moscow, as team-mate David Oliver finally achieved a gold medal at a major championship after missing the London spectacular through injury.  The standard of the men’s hurdling was truly dreadful though, with many of the finalists preferring to clatter rather than jump over the barriers.  Felix Sanchez and Javier Culson disappointed in the men’s 400m hurdles final as they came a distant fifth and sixth which was won on the line by Jehue Gordon of Trinidad & Tobago in a dramatic dip for the line.  

Grenada’s main star Kirani James faded badly to seventh in the men’s 400m final which was won by main rival LaShawn Merritt.  Highly fancied pole vault sensation Renaud Lavillenie of France came up short in the final, having to settle for the silver behind surprise package Raphael Holzdeppe of Germany.  It was a horrific championship for France, who lost Christophe Lemaitre to a thigh injury in the 100m final, whilst Jimmy Vicaut struggled to recapture his Diamond League form and crashed out of three semi-finals.  The French only won one gold medal, and that came on the final day.  It was some medal though, as Teddy Tamgho jumped over 18m to win the men’s triple jump, and come so close to breaking the 18-year record held by Briton Jonathan Edwards.

Isinbayeva sparks controversy

The most popular gold medal though went to the Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva in the women’s pole vault.  While the atmosphere and lack of spectators inside the Luzhniki Stadium was a major let-down throughout the championships, it was electric on pole vault final night.  Isinbayeva held off challenges from Olympic champion Jennifer Suhr from the United States and Cuban Yarisley Silva to win the gold, though her outrageous comments about Russia’s policy on anti-gay laws left a bitter taste in the mouth with many in the days afterwards.  She said on Thursday: “If we will allow to promote, allow to do all this stuff on the street, we are afraid for our nation because we consider ourselves like normal, standard people.  We just live with boys with women, women with boys.”  Isinbayeva later claimed her comments were ‘misunderstood,’ but there was no need to make a remark like that and see the politics clashing with the sport yet again in Russia.

It was also a positive championship for the BBC.  Following the disaster that was Channel 4’s coverage two years ago, the Beeb produced extensive and great coverage of each event and even repeated the afternoon sessions in the evening on the red button for those like yours truly who missed the action live due to work commitments.  They proved again why the home of athletics is the BBC, and will continue to be so for the next six years.

Athletics has had much better years than it has had to endure in 2013, but it was a good and exciting spectacle in Moscow, and whilst there weren’t any record-breaking performances, some of the best cemented their place as legends while other youngsters came through to show why the sport is in safe hands.  

Next stop for the worlds is Beijing in 2015, with the next major athletics competition being next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, followed by the European Championships in Zurich.

Categories: 100m, 2013, Athletics, Captain, Christine Ohuruogu, Diamond League, Drugs, IAAF, Mo Farah, Moscow, Pole Vault, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Team GB, Usain Bolt, Yelena Isinbayeva