Seemed like the gold medals in last night's IAAF World Championships were awarded for long and loyal service.
First of all, the women's 400 metres was won by the USA's Sanya Richards. She has been the world's number one for the last five years but has never been a champion in any major athletic competitions. She missed out on qualifying for the world championships in Osaka two years ago and lost out to Olympic Champion Christine Ohuruogo on the home straight a year ago in Beijing. Now she's world champion and even her competitors can't deny her that satisfaction.
The biggest cheer, however, was for "local" girl Steffi Nerius in the women's javelin. She made her debut in senior competition 16 years ago but has never been top of the world pack, until last night, when she took Germany's first ever gold in the women's javelin and the country's first in these world championships. She has previously taken silver in the 2004 Olympics and won bronze three times in the world championships. The only gold before last night was in the European Championships in 2006, this was her first gold in world competition. In the post competition press conference, Steffi Nerius reconfirmed her retirement after September's World Athletics Final, after which she will start coaching handicapped athletes.
I woke up this morning to the news on Swedish television that Daniel Bailey, 4th in the mighty 100 metre final last Sunday, had been caught in a post race doping test. He has later been completely exonerated by the IAAF, who said none of the 100-metre athletes had failed the doping test in connection with the race or any earlier test either. I'm surprised by my reaction though. I immediately believed the story to be true before it had been confirmed. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
All the best.
