English distance runner and one of the many Whanagnui Cooks Gardens sub 4 minute milers, Mo Farah in his farewell winning the 10,000 at the IAAF World Championships in London.
Post-Olympic years are always interesting in sport as a new four year cycle sees retirement of old stars, the emergence of new, the consolidation of those that made their names a year earlier and the inevitable decline of others.
The IAAF World Championships are proving to be a prime example
of all of the above.
London has provided a wonderful venue for the championships. Large and knowledgeable crowds (over 700,000 tickets sold for the eight day championships) with even morning sessions providing almost full houses.
The television with outstanding commentary and superb production has allowed us to follow field events as they develop alongside the drama unfolding on the track.
The sad fact is that you need to have Sky TV to see all this and many including young athletes are unable to view and share this major event. This is a bi-product of this commercial world in which we live.
The wonders of being able to record and view later has perhaps made the hours of viewing for an athletic fan such as myself more civilised although it has meant I am writing this article somewhat earlier in the morning than usual.
The drawback of watching recorded events is the danger that the result can be revealed before watching and sadly this was the case on Sunday for me. As I sat down to watch the recorded action from London I received a text from my esteemed coaching colleague who was unaware that I had not yet watched the session.
"So dope cheats gain redemption" - I knew immediately that the great Usain Bolt had been beaten and that Justin Gatlin was the probable winner. It did take a little of the shine off watching Bolt's individual final.
While the final result was perhaps disappointing, notably for the full stadium in London, it did give us a chance to have one last look at the greatest sprinter ever and a man who has given so much to track and field both on and off the track.
There were lessons for the young (who were able to see it) in how to accept both defeat and victory with dignity. Bolt moved directly to Gatlin to congratulate, while Gatlin bowed in respect of the great man.
The British great Mo Farah had a more successful round 1 of his farewell winning the 10,000 metres with another pulsating final lap of the Olympic Stadium in London. His adoring British fans will hope he can finish in the same style in the 5000 metres to bring the curtain down his track career (Farah is moving to marathon running which will have leading athletes in that gruelling discipline worried).
Farah may never have set a world record but his competitive record in major championships and the range of great performances from 1500 metres through to 10,000 metres places him right up there with the greatest distance runners of all time.
The field events, as indicated earlier, have also made for compulsive viewing and clever editing has allowed the viewer to follow the action.
The women's triple jump held on Monday evening in London was a truly great competition with the lead changing hands and the result in doubt until the final round. In the end Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela) prevailed over Caterine Ibarguen (Columbia) in reversing the result in Rio last year. The margin was a mere 2 centimetres.
It was in the field that New Zealand gained the first ever world championship male medal when Tomas Walsh joined Valerie Adams (three times a winner) and Beatrice Faumuina in snatching gold. Walsh who had finished third at last year's Olympics defeated probably the strongest shot field ever assembled.
He had led the qualifying competition with a season's best 22.14 metre effort and except for losing the leaf for a couple of minutes in an earlier round led throughout even producing another 22 metre effort with his last trial after the gold was assured. Walsh had an anxious wait as video evidence was used to overcome protests from two major USA rivals confirming that they had been correctly adjudicated to have infringed with two earlier throws. Walsh has established himself as a great competitor and is developing a growing list of achievements that include winning the Diamond League last year, the World Indoor title and an Olympic bronze medal and now of course the global title.
On the same day Eliza McCartney did not repeat her medal performance from Rio.
However, McCartney still only 20-years-old had a difficult injury riddled preparation for the World Pole Vault. McCartney can take much away from the experience.
She made the final, was only one height away from a medal and more importantly can look back in the year with the knowledge that when fully fit she vaulted 4.82m in Auckland in February that would have taken a silver medal in London. She will be back.