European Athletics Championships, Berlin

The reason I was in Berlin was to watch the European Athletics Championships, an event I have attended many times over the years, starting in Split back in 1990, and one which I have very much enjoyed.

Now assuming you are the average person, athletics will be of little interest to you, so I won't give you through a blow by blow account of the Championships, but merely pull out and illustrate some memorable moments for the non-sporting type. 

First, a lovely stadium. This is the Olympic Stadium from the 1936 Olympics, but much renovated, including the slightly unusual blue track. I had tickets for, and duly attended every session, which meant being quite close to the track for the morning sessions and higher vantage point for the evening sessions. The latter was more satisfying for watching the whole event, but the former for taking photos, so most of my athletic shots here were from heats of qualifying

Morning session, low shot

Evening session, higher vantage point

 

One feature of  European athletics events is that supporters all nationalities are mixed together, its not like a football match. And indeed coaches and athletes often mix with the crowd. Note below I have two Belarus coaches in front of me, with Belgian fans a few rows in front of them.

Photographers form an organised scrum to take shots of the long jump.

One of the most interesting events to follow live is the decathlon, and this was an excellent competition. Made more exciting as we had a genuine British contender in Tim Duckworth, who I hadn't seen before as he is actually based in the US. When I say based, he is actually born in the US but has British parentage, so maybe a plastic Brit, but happy to have him. And he produced a very decent and exciting performance.

But what launched him into medal contention, and opened up the competition, was the extraordinary failure of the French contingent in the Long Jump section. All three French competitors failed to make a single valid mark in the competition, thereby putting them out of contention, including the cast iron favourite. Kevin Mayer, below. This is what abject dejection looks like.

Body language says it all, gold medal thrown away.

Steeplechase heats

Hurdles

 And back to the decathlon - close ups of young Duckworth talking with his coach. Sadly, to cut to the chase, there is only one event that Tim really sucks at and that is the last one, the 1500 metres, where he faded from contender to win to miss out on the medals. Poor lad.

Charlie Grice

Now there is another feature of these events which I should mention, and that is the weather. It was ridiculously hot. over 30C every day. And my morning seats were out in full sun, with only a baseball capo and sunscreen to protect me. And a supply of ice lollies brought around by ice-cream sellers - a true lifeline

But difficult to complain about the heat when you are watching people try to run a fast 5000 m in
front of you!

But eventually the weather broke on a memorable Thursday night. Everyone had duly turned up in shorts and t-shirts for a sweltering 6pm start, but just at the end of the evening the heavens opened and a thunderstorm ensued. So serious was it that the stadium announcers recommended everyone stay in the stadium for our own safety as lightning played out above us. Given most of us were in just t-shirts few were anxious to get out into the deluge.

They tried to keep us entertained with disco music. Obviously I wasn't concerned about the storm. Not until they started playing "I will Survive" which suddenly injected some doubt into the mind!

And the crowd, and the cheery stewards, entered into the spirit, forming a conger line to go round the stadium

I should also mention that to my left, in a corner of the stadium with a less advantageous view there was always a section of German youths in alternating black, yellow or red t-shirts who formed a sort of local cheer group for German athletes. All very good natured and everything. (The reason  the seats behind them are empty is that beyond them the only view one would have is the back of a big screen!)

Anyway, a couple of the lads took this as there chance for 15 minutes of fame by whipping off their t-shirts and dancing around, with the cameras trained on them with a crowd having nothing to watch other than themselves.

Back to the action following days, and pole vault, always a great event to watch. Our best vaulter was out, but spirited efforts from our lower string. Young Adam Hague even made the final. Although surprise star of the show was 18 year old Swede who set a new world record for a teenager on the way to winning gold. One of the highlights of the week - certainly the most exciting field event.

 

All in all a very successful championships for Team GB, including Laura Muir above winning the 1500m. GB topped the medal table with 7 golds and 18 medals in all. I certainly had no regrets about making the trip.

 

 And a few things that added to my enjoyment. Good food on returning from the stadium every evening. This linguine with clams was the best food of the holiday. Just perfection

The stadium is tremendous - and the old Olympic Pool is still in use for leisure purposes just as one walks by to the arena.

And the station was truly built to take a lot of people at once!