The first record has already been set: one fifth of all the tickets were sold only two weeks after sales began and almost 500 days before the start of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Berlin 2009. Impressive proof of the German capital’s enthusiasm for sport. In all, 500,000 spectators are expected to attend the largest sporting event of the coming year – 20% of them from outside Germany. Some 2,500 athletes from 212 affiliates of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will be competing in 47 disciplines between 15 and 23 August 2009.
One highlight will be the marathon, which for the first time is not starting or ending in the stadium, but will run through the heart of the German capital. The start and finish will be at the Brandenburg Gate, the city’s famous landmark. A veritable sightseeing tour awaits the long-distance runners: Potsdamer Platz, Embassy Quarter, Government Quarter, Chancellery, Reichstag building, Museum Island and the Cathedral will all be passed before the competitors return to the Brandenburg Gate down the broad avenue of Unter den Linden. The runners will complete the just over 10-kilometre circuit four times before the winner is finally known. Haile Gebrselassie, holder of the marathon world record, says, “I’m looking forward to the World Championships. Berlin has always brought me luck; I’ve always won there.” The flat course offers ideal conditions for new records and spectators along the route and in front of their television sets will certainly have something to see.
Nevertheless, the centre of this world athletic festival will be Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, one of the world’s largest and most modern multipurpose arenas. The impressive oval with the blue synthetic track has already had its baptism of fire. Two years ago, more than 70,000 spectators celebrated the winners of the World Cup with a magnificent firework display. The modernized stadium offers the best conditions for track-and-field athletes – from the underground warm-up hall to the excellent training areas in the surrounding Olympiapark, one of the largest sporting complexes in the world. Between three and eight competitions will be decided on each of the nine days of the World Championships – from the women’s 10,000 metres on the first day to that supreme test of athletic prowess, the men’s decathlon on 19 and 20 August.
This major sporting event is also receiving political support. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office is contributing to the funding of international training camps for economically less well-off national teams. Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has assumed the patronage of this project. During his visits abroad he will also be handing his fellow foreign ministers symbolic relay batons in their respective national colours. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit will be firing the starting pistol and holding the finishing tape at the marathon. He will not be taking part: “That would mean I’d have to set a world record to be back at the finishing line ahead of the first athlete. I don’t think I could manage that.”
