Modesty becomes a triple world record holder to the point of saintliness but the acoustics inject an air of the diabolical into the sparkling new stadium on the banks of the Danube where the cameras add a touch of evil.
Never over
Commiserations to the Dutch athletes Sifan Hassan and Femke Bol who both fell at the end of their races as they battled for gold. Hassan went down about 40 metres from the end of the 10,000 metres final and Bol fell and dropped the baton as she tried to hang on for gold in the 4x400m mixed relay. So sad.
Bearing and up
The American sprinters Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley spiced things up before the meeting with some testosterone-fuelled sparring about who was going to run faster in the 100 metres. So it was refreshing to hear Faith Kipyegon staking a claim for modesty. The Kenyan has notched up three world records over the past couple of months. The first came on 2 June in Florence in the 1500m where she became the first woman to run under 3 minutes 50 seconds. A week later she possessed the fastest time for the 5000m. On 21 July in Monaco, it was the mile. Kipyegon attributes her vitality to her daughter Alyn who was born in June 2018. “Since I became a mother I’ve been really strong mentally and it has made me who I am now,” the 29-year-old enthused after qualifying for the semi finals of the 1500m with a stroll of just over four minutes. “In the past I would run 3 minutes 54 in the 1500 but I’m stronger. There is someone who is pushing me to wake up in the morning and do what I do.” Rivals are presumably not keen for her to go and have a second child.
Dancing in the streets
Someone must have been putting in some sweet moves to appease the rain gods. An almighty downpour early on Day 1 forced the postponement of the men’s 20km race through the city centre and also delayed the start of the heats at the National Athletics Centre. Fans looked most forlorn as they sat and waited for the competitors to emerge. The review thought athletes were tough. Can’t cut it in the rain? Anyway, out they came and eventually so did the sun. And by the time of the opening ceremony, the glitzy new stadium was positively bathed in bright evening sunshine.
Audio challenge
So with the environmental side sorted, what a shame that the organisers could not get the audio together. It was impossible to fathom out what the World Athletics boss Sebastian Coe was saying in his opening speech for the championships. It was like one of those creepy films in which voices are layered upon one another at different speeds. You think you can understand but no and off you are sucked into some terrifying vortex. Hungarian president Katalin Novak was indeed welcoming everyone to the fair city of Budapest but via the public address system, it sounded like a call to the legions of the underworld and a yell for the apocalypse. After spending the best part of a billion euros on the construction of the stadium and the revamp of the surrounding brownfield site, clearly someone wasn't wholeheartedly interested in spending cash on a decent public address system.
Slightly intrusive?
And the reasons soon became very clear. Absolutely nothing wrong with the stadium cameras. A little feature was foisted upon us - post satanic summoning - as the field was being organized for the discus and shot put events. It involved the stadium camera going round and finding lookalikes. A picture of the Hollywood star Denzel Washington was flashed up on the giant screens and the face of a man in the crowd was then shown. Yes, this really did happen. To be fair, he seemed rather charmed by the comparison and promptly took a photo of the image of him and Denzel side by side on the stadium's silver screen. Actress Salma Hayek was featured next and the apparatus of the surveillance state zoomed in on a young woman who reacted quite differently. She tried to hide her face behind a piece of paper. The camera remained trained on the mortified lass a tad too long. Fun for her this was clearly not. The horror eventually ended. But will there be a sequel?
