The 10th IAAF( International Association of Athletics Federation) World Championship has commenced in far way Helsinki- Finland. It started on Saturday morning( August 6) and it would end August 14, 2005. I have been following the competition via my cable Tv ( British Euro sports). Today is day 4 of the competition.

Here are some of the highlights of the competition:

1. Home boys, Uchenna Emedolu and Olusoji Fasugba have qualified for today's semi-final race in the men's 100 metres ( Although I do not think they stand a chance)

2. Home girl, Endurance Ojokolo finished last position in her 100meter semifinal crashing out of the competition.

3. Kenenisa Bekele and Sileshi Sihine won gold and silver for Ethiopia in the men’s 10,000 metres.

4.Ivan Tikhon and Vadim Devyatovsky, also won gold and silver respectively for Belarus in the men’s Hammer.

5. Kajsa Bergqvist of Sweden won a gold in women's High Jump.

More champions will be crowned tonight in the Women’s 800m, 3000m Steeplechase, Women's discus and Men’s 400m Hurdles ( look out for James Carter (U.S.)

Moreeeeeeeeeeee,  coming soon...............

The weather at Helsinki was terrible yesterday as it rained heavily.Some of the field events, such as the women's Discus final, were postponed to a later date.  Here are the hightlights of the competition that took place irespective of the heavy downpour.

1.The last track final of the night, the men's 400 metres Hurdles, took place after the rain had eased out, Felix Sanchez, whose bid to win a third World title came to an end as he crashed out of the competition because of his leg injury. Yet the torrential downpour did not dampen the delight of winner Bershawn Jackson (USA)( 47.30) and the two other medallists, James Carter ( USA) and Dai Tamesue, of Japan.

2. Saif Shaheen( Qatar)( 8min 13.31sec) was successful in his title defence in the 3,000 metres Steeplechase, Ezekiel Kemboi( Kenya) came second while Brimin Kipruto  took the bronze medal.

3. In the women's 800 metres, Zulia Calatyud( Cuba) a new comer( as in never won any championship before) took the Gold medal.The world champion, Maria Mutola, of Mozambique, unfortunately was no where near the medals table, she took the fourth position. Morocco’s Olympic silver medallist Hasna Benhassi came second while Russia’s Tatyana Andrianova came third.

Like I said before the women's Discus throw was postponed, other competitions that managed to take place inspite of the weather were the Men's decathletes races 400m & 100m. Sorry, I do not have a low down of who won what as my eyes were closing.

More action continues today, day 5 of the competition. Hope the weather today will be better.

i think athletics is boring.

nigeria doesn't have any stars again. our best have left.

whizkid, please continue with your daily updates. I'm making this thread a sticky thread.

whizkid:

Nice job.
Keep me informed.

@ Codec.
On the contrary, I think athletics is very exciting. Maybe I feel that way because I was deeply into it in my primary and secondary school days,I always looked forward to the yearly inter- house sports competition. I was already running both the 100m and 400m for the senior team even though I was in J.S 2. I also partook in the high jump and relay races. It was fun for me hearing people yell out my name when I take the lead. When I see Nigerian athletes mess up, wish I had taken up sports(athletics) as a career.

Talking about Nigeria not having stars any more, Uchenna Emedolu and Olusoji Fasuba have crashed out of the Men's 100m. Mercy Nku and Endurance Ojokolo are nothing to wirte home about. It is a shame, I must say.

@ Remedy

Thanks for the compliment, I'd try my best to keep you informed.

UPDATE: Day 5

The weather wasn't any better but it didn't deter Rashid Ramzi from winning gold in the 1500m race, though a moroccan he represented Bahrain. Adil Kaouch, a Morocan took the silver medal while Rui Silva, a Portuguese, went for bronze.

For Long jump, 19 year old Tianna Madison of the USA( 6.89m) took the gold medal, Tatyana Kotova, of Russia was second with 6.79 metres, Eunice Barber 6.76 metres settled for bronze.

Some Day 6 events include: Men's 200m final( watch out for Justin Gatlin), Women's 100m hurdles, Men's Pole Vault, Men's tripple jump final( watch out for Marian Oprea) and Women's discus throw final.

This is all have got, now back to work

Day 6.

More torrential rain, but the Americans recorded more victory with Justin Gatlin winning the Men's 200m race. Justin is a very fast runner,( no he does run he "flies" ), I must also add that he is cute    The  Americans also took the second, third and the Fourth positions. ( Boy, are they good)

Michelle Perry, an American  won the women’s 100m Hurdles, and Walter Davis( USA) won the Triple Jump. The US team now has nine golds.

The women's Discus was won by a Deutch,Franka Dietzch’s ( Germany), followed by Natalya Sadova of Russia. Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova of the Czech Republic won bronze.

The Pole Vault was won by Rens Blom of the Netherlands. Brad Walker( USA) came second while Marian Oprea came third.

Today is the day 7 of the competition and events scheduled to take place are the Men's 110 Hurdle, Women's Pole vault, Women's Hammer throw and Men's 400m Final.

good summaries whizkid.
what did u think of nigeria's performance throughout the competition especially seeing as the men just messed up in the 4x100m relay today?
it really pains me to see the way nigeria sports is going down the drain. the only bright spots of recent have been basketball (continental) and the u-21 football.
i mean athletics used to give us some prestige in the days of chidi imo, olapade adenikin, ezenwa bros, chioma ajunwa (controversial), mary onyali etc. but now the best have taken up foreign citizenship rightly or wrongly e.g obikwelu(wrongly ) and alozie (rightly).
honestly, the current crop of male sprinters aren't good individaully but together i thought they could do something in the relays. as for the women, ojokolo and nku are old and i congratulate them for their tireless effort over the years but we need young and fresh legs. unfortunately, there aren't any to the best of my knowledge except doris jacobs who is a quarter miler. what happened to the angela atede the hurdler?

men
fasuba: great starter but poor finisher a la dennis mitchel
emedolu: the best nigerian athlete and consistent over the years. struggled with a niggling injury through the championship
aliu: former world junior champion. was the great hope but never really achieved greatness. inconsitent; only major achievement was gold at 8th AAG.

the US floundered in their heat and i thought this was nigeria's chance to win our first gold in sprints on the international level. we came last because of our baton exchange. fasuba didn't really start well surprisingly and his exchange with emedolu wasn't good; just ok. emedolu and the "other fellow" made a good exchange but the last with deji aliu was TERRIBLE. It's like they were amateurs. Deji aliu himself yelled when he received the baton and didn't bother putting any effort in his run as it wouldn't have made a difference.

PS
@whizkid: what were your PB times in the 100m, relay and height cleared in high jump? why didn't you carry on in uni?

Finally, someone watched the competition . Thanks for your contributions, Vongauche. I agree with you, gone are the days we have good atheletes. The Men's relay race was a flop, the women managed to qualify during the heat but unfortuanately came seventh in th final. I guess the atheletes need to do their homework in baton exchange. Also, I think the attitude of our athletes contributes to their poor performances, athletes like Justin Gatlin, Michelle Perry and the likes, spend months preparing for these competitions whereas, our athletes start preparation during qualifers to represent the country.

Small wonder, USA and other countries who worked hard for the competition had lots of medals to show. USA for instance had a total of 22 medals, Nigeria could not even win 1 bronze

@Vongauche, I am not sure what my PB times was, it was a long time ago, but I know I was very good 'because I represented my school in inter school competitions and always came back with medals. I didn't take up sports in the university because in addition to being very good at sports, I was also very good in academics. So I chose academics  . Maybe I should have combined both.

How the countries scored at the end of the competition ( which ended Saturday the 14th of August), coming up soon.

First Eleven countries
                             G   S   B   Total
  1 United States    14   8   3    25   
  2 Russia                7   8   5    20   
  3 Ethiopia              3   4   2     9   
  4 Cuba                   2   4   0     6   
  5 Belarus               2   2   1     5   
  6 France                2   1   4     7   
  7 Sweden              2   0   1     3   
  8 Bahrain               2   0   0     2   
  9 Jamaica               1   5   2     8   
  10 Kenya               1    2   4     7   
  11 Morocco           1   2    0      3
Key:  G-Gold, S-Silver, B-Bronze 

Too bad Nigeria didn't win any medal, not even aluminium!

Hmmm.....
Thank you guys and gals for all the good info.I tried to catch the events,but got increasingly disheartened,as I never saw niaja colours or names anywhere!! What happened to the long jumper(even though he represents Britain)?I forget his name.Quite young with lots of promise?!
Yes,gone are the days when Nigeria was a respected name in sports!I am yet to recover from the shock that Angola may qualify over us for the world cup-where countries like Iran,Afghanistan?!and so many others in that category will play. Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do to salvage the situation.We know the causes!

Whizkid:

Thanks for the comprehensive update for those that did not have time to watch it on telly.