Zurich athletics meet aims high
Organisers at the Zurich Weltklasse athletics meeting are hoping for some record-breaking performances as athletes come fresh from the Beijing Olympics.
The Golden League competition, which takes place on August 29, is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. Among the medallists competing before the enthusiastic crowd is sprinting phenomenon Usain Bolt.
The attending athletes have 41 medals between them, including 14 golds. Four of them, Bolt included, are the current world record holders.
The Weltklasse itself is no stranger to records. In 1960 Germany’s Armin Hary became the first man to run ten seconds over 100 metres – a stellar moment in athletics.
Since then both the legendary American sprinter Carl Lewis and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell have broken records there for the same distance.
Patrick Magyar, Weltklasse’s managing director, said that he was not worried about the competition coming so close to the Olympic Games, which finished in China on August 24.
“Traditionally the best meetings in Zurich have always been the ones very shortly after the big championships because that’s when the athletes are in the best shape,” Magyar told swissinfo ahead of the competition.
Highlights this year are expected to be the 100 metres with Bolt, the triple world-record holder and gold medallist in the Beijing Olympics over 100 metres, 200 metres and the 4×100 metres relay.
In the women’s sprints, 200 metre world champion Allyson Felix and 400 metre star Sanya Richards, both from the United States, will battle it out over both distances. Both will be out for revenge after missing out on golds in China.
Vlasic aims high
“We’re looking forward to having some world records and champions here,” said Magyar.
In the field events, Olympic gold medal-winner Yelena Isinbayeva and high jump star Blanka Vlasic, who underwent a surprise defeat in Beijing, will also be hoping to do well.
Vlasic just failed in her attempt to break the world record of 2.10 metres at the Weltklasse last year, when the weather conditions were not ideal. This time the 1.93-metre-tall Croatian is hoping to repeat her win.
“I’m keeping my options open. It’s no pressure. I just enjoy every time that I get the opportunity to jump and hopefully maybe this year or the next year the bar will stay in place,” she told swissinfo at a Weltklasse media conference.
The 24 year old says she enjoys coming to Zurich as it is well organised and the athletes are well looked after by a team that “understand athletics”. A big plus is also the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Supportive crowd
“When I come to Zurich I feel very nice because I can see that people like athletics and they understand it,” Vlasic explained.
“Even when I was here the first time, I was 17 years old, and the crowd already knew my name so I could tell that they really enjoy being here and their support is very important for me.”
Magyar agrees that the crowd is special. “It’s probably the most knowledgeable crowd in the world and athletes really enjoy coming here. When they do a great performance the crowd acknowledges it and goes frenetic,” he said.
Switzerland is not, in Magyar’s words, “a great athletics nation” – apart from marathon runner Viktor Röthlin, 6th in Beijing, whose event is not staged in Zurich. But Swiss athletes will be running in the Zurich Trophy.
The 4×100 metres relay event, which caps the programme, will once again include a young Swiss team.
There will also be a mini match of Under 23 squads from various nations and the canton of Zurich. This is aimed at encouraging emerging talents.
Magyar is now simply hoping for some good weather to top off the event – even if world best performances have happened in Zurich’s heavy head winds and the pouring rain.
“It was 12 degrees Celsius last year which was really cold for world class performances. So we are hoping that our relationship with the weather gods will help us a little bit this year,” he said.
swissinfo, Isobel Leybold-Johnson in Zurich
The Zurich Weltklasse meeting was first held in 1928.
24 world records have been broken at the Zurich event, with the last being in 2006, when Asafa Powell set a new record – 9.77 seconds – for 100 metres.
Last year’s meeting was the first major event in the new 29,000-capacity Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich which was rebuilt for SFr125 million ($105 million).
The organisers have announced that the 2008 event is sold out.
The Golden League is a series of the six most important athletics meetings in Europe.
In 2008 the series started in June in Berlin, then went to Oslo, Rome and Paris. After Zurich the last one takes place in Brussels on September 5.
The goal is to win the famous Golden League Jackpot – pure gold amounting to $1 million (SFr1.05 million). The jackpot will only be awarded to athletes winning their event at all six Golden League meetings. There are ten jackpot disciplines.
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