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2011 Athletics World Championships


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As a pre-Olympic year, this should be a good indicator of where the current athletes stand. The 2011 Daegu Athletics World Championships will be from August 27 to September 4. This article below got me a little excited about the upcoming tournament.

With World Athletics Championships a month away, Daegu trying to create buzz

Some highlights from the article:

- The main stadium, the athletes' village and the media centre are all set and ready to go

- 350,000 of the 453,962 tickets have been sold to date. (I wonder how this compares with Berlin 2009?)

- With American Tyson Gay injured, the 100 m final could be an all-Jamaican affair between Usain Bolt (though still struggling), Asafa Powell and Steve Mullings

- Teams from the US, Jamaica, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Britain and Germany will fly in early and set up training bases in early-mid August

- Korea, the host nation, will be hard-pressed to win a medal here. It is hoped this world championships will help athletics gain popularity in Korea much like Park Tae-Hwan did for swimming and Kim Yu-Na did for figure skating.

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Do you know, how unpopular these WCh is here in Europe? The IAAF had to reduce their demand of the TV-rights dramatically to get them sold.

Bolt set a new WR in Berlin two years ago and not in Beijing...

Nope, I have no idea about the popularity of the WCh in Europe. I was just wondering if 350,000 out of 450,000 sold at this point in time was comparable to Berlin.

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One of the interesting storylines is whether or not American Allyson Felix will double in the 200 and 400 meters. If she does, then the chances of her winning a fourth straight World Championship gold medal in the 200 is very slim. She is also in the pool for both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays. She has not made that decision yet.

Sanya Richards also wanted to double, but finished last in the finals of the 200 Meters at the US Championships, a race that has resulted in a bit of controversy. Richards will try to defend her 400 meter championship, although with the way she's been running this year, the chances of a repeat are slim. She's nowhere near her 2009 form and missed 2010 due to injury and Bechets Disease, which she has.

As for London, next year, if Felix decides to focus on her specialty, the 200 meters, then the chances are high that she will finally get over that hump and finally win an individual gold medal and that could end up with her being one of the greatest US Track Athletes of All Time, up there with Flo Jo, Jackie Joyner Kersee (who's husband coaches Felix), Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis (among others). Richards may go down as one of the best American track athletes to have never won an individual gold medal, but we'll see what happens.

The United States team has a lot of new, fresh faces, including three American football players. Next Year's Olympic Trials will likely be the last chance for many veterans on the American squad to make the national team.

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Nope, I have no idea about the popularity of the WCh in Europe. I was just wondering if 350,000 out of 450,000 sold at this point in time was comparable to Berlin.

515 000 visitors in the stadium, 1 340 000 supporters at the marathon track.

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Do you know, how unpopular these WCh is here in Europe? The IAAF had to reduce their demand of the TV-rights dramatically to get them sold.

Bolt set a new WR in Berlin two years ago and not in Beijing...

No surprise considering the location of both the 2011 and 2013 champs (2013 is Moscow, but 2/3 hours ahead of rest of Europe). C4 have snatched the rights from the BBC in the UK. They've managed to lure Michael Johnson from the BBC (presumably to be loaned back for the Olympics).

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/sporting-legend-joins-c4-team-for-iaaf-world-athletics-championships

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2-3 hours???! Are you kidding me?

Why would he be kidding you, what is so funny or unreasonable about saying that Moscow is 2 to 3 hours ahead of the rest of Europe? Current time in Moscow is 00:10, Berlin 22:10 and London 21:10? 2 to 3 hours does see accurate.

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Why would he be kidding you, what is so funny or unreasonable about saying that Moscow is 2 to 3 hours ahead of the rest of Europe? Current time in Moscow is 00:10, Berlin 22:10 and London 21:10? 2 to 3 hours does see accurate.

Having the demand of tv rights reduced because of 2-3 hours seems paltry.

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- 350,000 of the 453,962 tickets have been sold to date. (I wonder how this compares with Berlin 2009?)

They will not go higher than 350,000 ... as it is now impossible to find an hotel room in Daegu... all of them are full, already booked for IAAF, Media & sponsors....

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They will not go higher than 350,000 ... as it is now impossible to find an hotel room in Daegu... all of them are full, already booked for IAAF, Media & sponsors....

Will you be there?

I guess the rest of the tickets will be up to the people of Korea to fill the rest of the seats. Daegu still has 2.5 million people, and Busan isn't so far away with 4 million people who could do a day trip.

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Will you be there?

I guess the rest of the tickets will be up to the people of Korea to fill the rest of the seats. Daegu still has 2.5 million people, and Busan isn't so far away with 4 million people who could do a day trip.

I was thinking to attend as in the region at that time, but impossible to find an hotel room in Daegu !!!!

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This article says 390,000 tickets have been sold as of 4 days ago.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2939399

Ticket sales have been brisk, organizers said. About 390,000 tickets, close to 77 percent of the amount available, have been sold as of last Friday, according to the organizing committee.

That percentage is also better than the previous two World Championships, when Osaka sold only 49 percent of its tickets available in 2007 and Berlin sold 70 percent. According to organizers, about 28,000 tickets were sold overseas.

Osaka's stadium holds 50,000 people, Berlin's stadium has a 74,000 capacity and Daegu's stadium holds 66,000.

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Just read on the site of the German Athletics Federation that many tickets were given to school classes and and company employees or were sold to a reduced price. Now the OC is fearing that the stands will be empty since there isnt much interest in athletics in Korea.

This will be a new Edmonton. Th poorest WCh ever. Another sports event bought by Samsung! :(

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sergey Bubka elected as IAAF vice president after controversial re-vote at biennial Congress

Sergey Bubka has been re-elected as one of the four vice presidents of the International Association of Athletics Federations after a controversial second vote was ordered.

The original vote on Wednesday morning suggested that Bubka had failed to win re-election, despite being the man widely considered the heir apparent to IAAF president Lamine Diack, enhancing London 2012 chairman Lord Coe’s chances of gaining the top job when Diack steps down.

With five candidates chasing the four available spots, Bubka was the only one to miss out as delegates from 199 countries voted for Coe, Qatar’s Dahlan Jumman Al Hamad, American Bob Hersh and Canada’s Abby Hoffman. Hamad and Hoffman topped the poll with 175 votes, with Hersh receiving 171 votes and Coe 167.

Bubka finished a distant last with just 118 votes – prompting gasps from the auditorium floor in Daegu. At the last IAAF elections in Osaka in 2007, Bubka had topped the poll, prompting Diack to appoint him as the IAAF's senior vice-president. Bubka is also a member of the International Olympic Committee and a major player in international sports politics.

But in a dramatic development, the Ukrainian was suddenly handed an unlikely lifeline when a manual re-vote was ordered due to technical problems with the electronic voting system.

The vote for IAAF treasurer, which followed the election of the four vice-presidents, was shown to be flawed when a total of 210 votes were cast for the three candidates, despite only 199 countries being eligible to vote.

Pierre Weiss, the IAAF general secretary, said the technical problems cast doubt over the entire voting process and ordered a manual re-vote for all the elections using paper voting forms.

The votes were still being counted well into the evening in South Korea. To add to the sense of shambles, one of two photocopiers used to produce the voting forms broke down.

"We are facing a situation that was totally unseen," said Weiss before the re-vote. “We have lost trust in the system. The solution is not ideal but we are not in a situation where we can have ideal solutions. We are in crisis."

Some delegates were left wondering whether the re-vote was more conspiracy than cock-up. Whatever the truth, the chaotic scenes have severely damaged the credibility of the biggest sport in the Olympic programme.

If the result of the original electronic vote is confirmed, Bubka will not even have a place on the ruling Council. He had been so certain being re-elected as a vice-president that he had not even put his name forward for a regular Council seat.

Such a scenario would seriously undermine any hope he has of succeeding Diack as president when he stands down in Beijing in four years’ time. It would also help Coe’s own presidential ambitions, particularly if he can deliver a successful London Olympics.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/athletics/8719582/Sergey-Bubka-elected-as-IAAF-vice-president-after-controversial-re-vote-at-biennial-Congress.html

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Just read on the site of the German Athletics Federation that many tickets were given to school classes and and company employees or were sold to a reduced price. Now the OC is fearing that the stands will be empty since there isnt much interest in athletics in Korea.

This will be a new Edmonton. Th poorest WCh ever. Another sports event bought by Samsung! :(

T&F is so over-rated!! It was only that other Blatter-clone, Primo Niebolo, who demanded those minimum 55,000 seat stadia for his IAAFs, giving the impression that his sport is such in demand. The truth is, it ain't. They are too many events, too sweaty and you have idiotic events like the SHOTPUT (I mean is that a sport for frustrated violinists?) and the HAMMER (but do they really throw a Hammer? Of course not!!

Put in Ice Dancing instead and you would GET capacity crowds!! Remove ATHLETICS from the Olympics!!

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Just read on the site of the German Athletics Federation that many tickets were given to school classes and and company employees or were sold to a reduced price. Now the OC is fearing that the stands will be empty since there isnt much interest in athletics in Korea.

This will be a new Edmonton. Th poorest WCh ever. Another sports event bought by Samsung! :(

What's wrong with selling tickets to company employees and schoolchildren? Especially schools? Schoolchildren are the exact type of people that SHOULD be going to the events.

This has allowed for 95% of the tickets to be sold.

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T&F is so over-rated!! It was only that other Blatter-clone, Primo Niebolo, who demanded those minimum 55,000 seat stadia for his IAAFs, giving the impression that his sport is such in demand. The truth is, it ain't. They are too many events, too sweaty and you have idiotic events like the SHOTPUT (I mean is that a sport for frustrated violinists?) and the HAMMER (but do they really throw a Hammer? Of course not!!

Put in Ice Dancing instead and you would GET capacity crowds!! Remove ATHLETICS from the Olympics!!

55,000 seats? Well that (and the fact that nobody in the United States gives a flying rear about the sport) are the reasons that the United States will never host a World Championships.

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55,000 seats? Well that (and the fact that nobody in the United States gives a flying rear about the sport) are the reasons that the United States will never host a World Championships.

Well, I admit, the one screw-up that the IAAF made was choosing Edmonton to host one. Cannot believe the IAAF gave the city all the votes to host the 2001 edition. The British press made an infamous word for the host city then: DEADmonton. Like, low attendance throughout the competition, the city apathetic about the event, and as an insult to the city by a majority of the international press: NO SPORTS CULTURE. :huh:

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Just read on the site of the German Athletics Federation that many tickets were given to school classes and and company employees or were sold to a reduced price. Now the OC is fearing that the stands will be empty since there isnt much interest in athletics in Korea.

This will be a new Edmonton. Th poorest WCh ever. Another sports event bought by Samsung! :(

Edmonton was a poor choice, who puts the event in a city of 700,000?

Apparently this event has a fair amount of seats sold. Athletics isn't a glamour sport (really only team sports manage to sell stadiums out).

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