Day 4, World Champs in Berlin

For each day of the World Champs, you could purchase a day ticket...one ticket that would give you admission to the morning and evening sessions. On Tuesday, however, it was a separate ticket for the morning and the evening. The morning session tickets were incredibly cheap, since no finals were held in the mornings. Which meant for 11 euros, I was sitting in the second row, down on the field, right next to the discus cage for men's disc qualifying!

This was the view from my seat, not zoomed in at all.

Piotr Malachowski of Poland on the left (last year's Olympic Silver Medallist), Virjilius Alekna of Lithuania in the middle (he's just damn good!), Frantz Kruger of Finland on the right (2000 Olympic Bronze medallist, then representing South Africa).

Jarred Rome of the USA in the red jacket. On the right in the orange is Markus Munch of Germany. He's my age (23), but he looks like he's about 14. Except for being about 6' 6".

Zoltan Kovago of Hungary taking a warm-up.
Jarred Rome of the USA taking a warm-up. He'd make the finals.
I didn't get any pictures of the first round of the men's discus (don't worry, I got video that will soon be sent in to macthrowvideo), but clearly, thats alright. I was in the 2nd row next to the discus circle...Gerd Kanter's coach was sitting in the 1st row, right in front of me. Gerd came down to talk to his coach after automatically qualifying for the finals with one throw...and obviously I wasn't letting him get away without a picture. Gerd is the defending world champion from 2007 and the Olympic Champion from last year.
Piotr Malachowski of Poland taking a warm-up.
The starting line for the women's 1500m was also right in front of me and, as you can see, sometimes obstructed the view of the discus. Christin Wurth-Thomas of the USA is third from the left.
They didn't use a real gun to start the races...notice the wire coming down from the official's hand. Even though I was right near the gun, I couldn't see any smoke come out, and the only sound I heard was through the PA of the stadium.
A view of the discus sector after the competition was over.
For lunch this day was some African food...Couscous and chicken with (a lot of) peanut sauce. The little pastry looking thing in the upper left of the plate is an African donut...I have no idea what makes it a donut. It was all pretty good too.
"The biggest postcard in the world!" From afar, it looks like the body of a hammer thrower, but if you click it to zoom in you can see its a composite of lots of smaller pictures of Track and Field and the World Championships.
Toyota was one of the sponsors that had a big exhibit outside of the stadium. This is an engine from one of the hybrid cars they had on display.

EVENING SESSION PICTURES

Before I made my way to my seat for the evening session, I caught the medal carriers before they brought out the medals for the women's triple jump medal ceremony.

It was kind of funny, for all the women's medal ceremonies, young men dressed in suits would bring the medals out to be presented. For all the men's medal ceremonies, some rather good looking young German women wearing skirts would be the ones to bring the medals out.

The headline that night (for me at least) was the women's javelin. Some other things happened before that though, including the final of the Men's triple jump. Here's a jumper in action...

Maybe there's a jumper out there that can tell me...why do jumpers always rock back and forth a bunch of times before they actually start their approach? Jumpers are weird :) anyway...

The Women's Javelin throw was finished in the first round. Steffi Nerius of Germany threw 67.30m/220'-9" on her first throw, which would hold up through the whole competition to be the winning throw.

While the javelin was going on, on the track, Sanya Richards won the women's 400m for the USA!
Men's steeplechase was going on as well...this is a picture of them going over the water jump that was on the big screen.

Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson went 1 and 3 for the USA, respectively, in the men's 400m hurdles! As you can see, a lot goes on at once at track meets.

So back to the women's javelin. With one throw left, and a contingent of Czech fans cheering,

Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic, defending World and Olympic champion, and world record holder, had one more chance to take the gold medal away from Steffi Nerius. If Spotakova's throw wasn't far enough, then Nerius, the next thrower in the order, would automatically be World Champion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZGgJWRxX-k

I tried to put this video right in my blog like all the others, but it wouldn't load for some reason. Anyway, there's the youtube link.

The video says it all. Feel free to ignore the commentary at the beginning. And sorry the video is out of focus. The main thing is the sound - the roar of the crowd as they reacted to the first gold medal of the Championships won by a German athlete. This shows you how big of a deal track and field is in Germany, and it shows you how some countries, no matter how big or small, or what the event, will always get behind and go wild for the athletes on their national teams. I really wonder if every American athlete who won a medal would get this kind of reaction if the World Champs were held in America.
The celebration just kept on going! People must have been on their feet cheering for Steffi for over 10 minutes. Even during the Men's 10,000m medal ceremony, Steffi kept taking her victory lap, and people kept cheering for her.

After that night I decided to back to the Kulturstadion to see if anything was going on there at night. It turned out nothing was, but I did get some Polish food and beer.
This is a turkey-bacon-onion kebab, though the turkey was pink-ish, more like ham. I didn't really care, because it was incredibly delicious. It came with a plain slice of bread, and I also got 1 liter of Tyskie, the beer that the guy working the stand said was the best they had. It was a very good meal, I'm interested to see what other Polish food/beer is like.

The guy working the stand was speaking English to everyone he encountered. More countries in Europe seem to be getting more and more connected to one another, yet each country still speaks its own language. So English seems to be the universal language over there - if you don't speak the language of a country where someone is from, you just converse in English. On top of the Polish people speaking English to everyone, I remember being in a bar one night, and two people who were working for the Russian team walked into the bar. One of the Russians walked right up to the bartender and said "Do you speak English here?", and they proceeded to have a conversation in English. I suppose everyone learning one second language is easier than every European trying to learn a whole bunch of other languages.
To close off the night, I got a view of the Brandenburg Gate at night. The picture doesn't really do it justice. The lighting was really cool and seeing the gate at night compared to during the day was worth the second trip all by itself.

Day 3, World Championships

There were no morning competitions on Day 3 of the Championships, so I decided to go check out the Kulturstadion or Culture Stadium, which was basically a big international festival being put on in conjunction with the Championships. It was right next to the Brandenburg Gate.The Brandenburg Gate.

A sign for the Kulturstadion - to the right is a stage, to the left is various food stands. There was a Polish food stand, Korean, Russian, and French food stands, Jamaican and African food stands, and many others. The funniest one of all though, was...

the American food stand! You could get a cheeseburger, ribs, hot dogs, Budweiser, Sam Adams, and plenty of other American food. I was going to see what it was like, but it was EXPENSIVE. It was 7 Euros, or about $11 for a cheeseburger! On top of that, the Polish food stand had Polish people working in it, the Korean food stand had Korean people, but the American stand had Germans, wearing American flag aprons. I decided to pass on the over-priced, fake-authentic American food.

This was right next to the Kulturstadion - I guess its supposed to say "The Kennedy Museum" but the grammar got messed up in the translation. President Kennedy is revered to this day in Germany. In the 60's (1961, I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong, please) John F. Kennedy spoke in Berlin about how the Americans weren't in favor of Germany dividing over communism, and he sympathized with the residents of West Berlin who were surrounded in East Germany and closed in by the Berlin Wall. This was when JFK made his famous remark, "Ich bin ein Berliner."

A funny side story...the literal translation for "Ich bin ein Berliner" is actually "I am a jelly donut". Kennedy obviously wanted to say "I am a Berliner," for which the correct translation is simply "Ich bin Berliner." But in German, "ein Berliner" means "a jelly donut." Nonetheless, the German people understood what he was trying to say, and there are some Germans who cried when he said that. Just by saying those words, Kennedy showed such significant support for the German people, and they remember it to this day. If you're wondering, the picture of Obama is advertising for when he'll be speaking at the museum in November.

This is showing the track they had laid out around the stage, which is to the right. The kids running around the track are part of a world hunger benefit that was going on that day at the Kulturstaion.
This is the Reichstag, the German Parliamentary building, just a short walk from the Brandenburg Gate. This is where Hitler became the Furor, where many battles were fought during WWII, and where the now re-unified German government operates from. So much history happened here that I can't even begin to remember it all, much less write about it all. It is fascinating though, and is worth looking up if you're a history buff. If you get up close to it, there are still some bullet holes in the building left over from WWII.
I don't remember exactly what this building is called, but its essentially Germany's Whitehouse. The Chancellor is entitled to live there, in its living spaces (though the current Chancellor chose not to live there). On top of that, there are many offices for different functions in the Chancellor's job and for the rest of the government to use.
Right next to the Kulturstadion, at the Akademie der Kunste (Academy of Art) was an open-air exhibition featuring 125 Years of Athletics (what they call 'Track and Field' in the rest of the world) in Photography. Here are some highlights.

Back outside, Nadine Kleinert was being interviewed on the stage in front of a very enthusiastic German crowd.

Opting to forgo all the foreign food stands for the time being, I ventured a little outside of the Kulturstadion and found a food stand out on the street, where I got some Currywurst.
I'm not sure exactly what kind of sausage it was but it was more similar to a hot dog, and cut up into pieces and covered with curry sauce. No bread, you just ate it with that little fork. Obviously, a Berliner Pilsener went right along with it.

So after that quick meal it was off to the Olympiastadion for the evening session. Waiting for the train I snapped a picture of this ad:

It says something about how a good goal for a hammer thrower is 86.75m (which is one centimeter over the current world record). They had these ads for just about every different type of track and field event, I just took a picture of the one event that really matters.

EVENING SESSION PICTURES

This is the original bell from the Bell Tower, now sitting outside the stadium. Of course, on this night I was much more excited for what was happening inside the stadium...

THE MEN'S HAMMER FINAL!!!! This is the view of the cage from my seat. I wasn't zoomed in at all...I was in the 9th row on the field level, right next to the sector. It was more expensive, but I had to treat myself on this particular night.
Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia became the first Slovenian to ever win a gold medal in track and field at the Olympics last year, and instantly became one of his country's biggest celebrities. Hammer throwing is now huge there, thanks to him. This is a picture of a small group of Slovenian fans who came to the World Championships just to see him throw.

That was one of the cooler things about being at the World Championships, seeing smaller country's fans cheer on their athletes. Kozmus might have been the only Slovenian at the championships, I'm not sure, but these fans were there anyway. There were tons of Jamaicans there to cheer on their sprinters, and lots of Finns to cheer on the Finnish javelin throwers. Seeing a small country cheer on the one or a few athletes they might have competing gives you a different perspective than you get growing up American. I'm used to seeing a massive American contingent at every Olympics or Worlds, and I'm used to seeing a lot of medals being taken home. As Americans we seem to kind of take that for granted, where as in some countries, simply having one athlete participate is a source of great national pride. This leads me to the unfortunate segue back in to my hammer final coverage, as there were no Americans in the Men's hammer final...
...but I wore this shirt with pride anyway!!! (Click on it to zoom in if you can't see what it says).
Here's Libor Charfreitag of Slovakia taking a warm-up.

Here's Nicola Vizzoni, 2000 Olympic Silver Medallist from Sydney, taking a warm-up.
Krisztian Pars of Hungary, the favorite, being introduced in the hammer final. Things would not go too well for him...he finished 4th!

Markus Esser of Germany taking his first competitive throw. It wasn't even 70m/230' (no, 230 feet is not even close to far when it comes to world class hammer throwing) so clearly Esser was struggling at this point. He would finish 6th.
Sergej Litvinov of Germany taking his 1st throw. He would end up placing 5th with a 76.58m throw - pretty good for a 23 year old.

Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland, 2000 Olympic Champion, taking his first throw. This was 77.44m - he'd go on to throw 79.30m/260'-2" to take the silver medal here.

Krisztian Pars, the favorite, taking a throw...I'm not sure which one. He had 8 throws over 80m this year vs. Kozmus' 1 up to this point, yet could only muster 77.45m for 4th place here at the World Champs. If you know what you're listening for, you can actually hear him screaming...he has a frightening yell, its even better than mine!
Kozmus taking one of his bigger throws, this might have been one of his 80m ones...it was close if it wasn't over. He was the only thrower over 80m that night, and would go on to win with 80.84m/265'-3".
Berlino driving the hammers back to the circle!

Left: Aleksey Zagornyi of Russia, who laid low the entire competition, then on his last throw displaced Pars to get the bronze medal! He has always thrown far but never managed to win a medal at a major championship until now. In the middle, Ziolkowski just recieved a Polish flag to celebrate his silver medal. On the right, Markus Esser and Sergej Litvinov are applauded by an always enthusiastic and appreciative German crowd.
Kozmus, meanwhile, stands alone as the World Champion!
The Slovenian fans went NUTS for Kozmus as he walked by.
A Chinese athlete getting advice from her coach during the Women's Triple Jump final...I just thought it was a cool picture.
The other big news from this night was that Elena Isinbaeva of Russia, the woman pole vaulter who is widely accepted as unbeatable (and has been for the past few years in which she's won every single competition she's been in and set over 20 world records), no-heighted in the pole vault! She didn't clear once! This left the competition wide open and Chelsea Johnson of the USA tied for the silver medal! Woohoo!
Closing out the night, the medal ceremony of the men's hammer. I'll see an American on the top of that podium some day, even if I have to get him/her up there myself...

Day 2, World Championships

The next day was the Women's javelin and shot put qualifying in the morning with the women's shot put final held later that night.

A shot of the women's shot sectors...

...and a picture of the women's jav sector. I think that's Barbora Spotakova on the runway (the World Record holder from the Czech Republic), I don't remember for sure though.

Here is Christina Obergfoll getting one of her throws re-played on one of the big screens.

Rachel Yurkovich right after releasing one of her qualifying throws (the javelin is at the top of the picture) that would qualify her for the finals later that week! She is the first American woman to ever qualify for a World Championships Women's jav final!

The majority of pictures/videos I got from the 2nd day were of the evening session...
EVENING SESSION PICTURES
Well, this wasn't quite back at the stadium yet. But I took this picture to show that you really could buy ANY drink at the train station, and drink it anywhere you wanted (Yes, if you're wondering, I had it on the train on the way to the stadium.)
Unfortunately, I got to the stadium a little late in the evening (no, not because of the Jack Daniels and cola, but simply because I left my hotel too late) so I missed the beginning of some of the events, and I unfortunately missed the medal ceremony for the Men's shot put. Not all was lost though.
I got there right after the medal ceremony, while the medallists were still having their pictures taken by the press. Here's Cantwell with Berlino, the World Champs mascot.
Me and Tomasz Majewszki, silver medallist in the shot. When I showed my grandparents this picture my Grandma asked "Is he standing on a step or something?" No, Grandma, he's just that freaking big.
Me and Christian Cantwell, the gold medallist!
Many coaches and athletes like to debate whether the spin or the glide is a better method of throwing the shot. Some say taller athletes shouldn't spin because its too hard to stay in the circle, others say it doesn't matter how tall you are, the spin will benefit anyone. After meeting Majewszki and Cantwell up close, I realized that on top of being incredibly strong and quick, these guys are MASSIVE, and it doesn't really matter if they spin, glide, or chew the shot up and spit it out...the ball is simply going to go far!
The headline event of the night, was of course the Men's 100m. All the attention was of course on two athletes...
Usain Bolt,
and Tyson Gay. In case you're on the edge of your seat reading this, they both qualified for the final. In the mean time, the Women's shot final was also going on.
As the video says, this is Michelle Carter of the USA's first throw, which ended up being a foul. She threw well later in the competition though, 18.96m/62'-2.5" to place 6th.
This was Nadine Kleinert's first throw, a 20.06m/65'-10" effort that put her in first place at the time, and it was also a personal best at the time, hence the German crowd's reaction. Despite getting another personal best later in the competition at 20.20m, she still finished 2nd to Valerie Vili of New Zealand. Don't ask me how I didn't get any pictures/vids of Vili...I guess I just had a brain fart and missed her somehow.
The women's shot put actually was a hell of a competition with a duel between Kleinert and Vili for the 1-2 spots, as well as the bronze medal position changing a few times (it finally went to Lijiao Gong of China with a 19.89 throw). However unless you are a thrower, that is not what you'll remember about the 2nd night of the Berlin World Championships. Unless you've been living in a cave you know by now what happened...

It turns out my camera gives you about 5 seconds of notice before the battery goes dead. The men for the 100m final were literally down in the starting blocks, the official ready to pull the trigger, me ready to record the race on video...and my camera friggin' died! Of course, I was able to turn it back on briefly after about two minutes, which allowed me to get these pictures of the aftermath of Usain Bolt redifining the physical limits of humanity.
By the end of the night, everyone sitting near me knew I was American, since I cheered so loud for all the Americans and waved my flag and all that. After the 100m race, a German guy turned to me and said, "Congratulations, new national record for you! 9.71 is not bad!" To which I responded, "9.71 is insane! It really is insanely fast - Bolt was just that much faster!"
At the end of the night, they began removing the javelin sector that had been there earlier for the heptathlon javelin competition. At this point, people were still cheering for Bolt. I of course was in the stadium still, too, trying to comprehend what happened. When the race was over, all I knew was that Gay had come in 2nd - I hadn't paid attention to the clock at all. When I finally looked over and saw the time - I don't even know what to write. I still can't describe it.
Whats the perfect way to end a night like that? German beer, of course.
This is a bar I stumbled across that I decided to have some drinks at at the end of the night. I don't know what it means, but as you can tell, it's a soccer bar.
This bar really is a must-visit for any soccer fan. If you're in Berlin, go to the Zoologischergarten train station, and when you exit, head in to the busier part of the city. Walk right past the Burger King, and you'll come across this bar. After having a Berliner Pilsener, I had an Erdinger, which comes in this glass...
The top of the glass is a soccer ball, if you're trying to figure that out. And, the beer was great too.