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BUDAPEST 2023 WORLDS TITBITS - ONE
Netherlands' Sifan Hassan reacts after falling at the end of the women's 10,000m final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
A Nigerian journalist flew from Lagos but landed in Istanbul just 30 minutes to his connecting flight to Budapest.
Missed flights, luggage
So there hasn’t been much time for most people to settle in properly at the 19th World Athletics Championships.
The action on track and in the field at the National Athletics Centre has been intense since Day One on Saturday.
However, several individuals especially in the media centre are reeling from missed flights or missing luggage escapades they encountered enroute to Budapest.
One Kenyan journalist had her luggage stay in Kigali following a long route from Nairobi to Kigali (Rwanda) to Doha (Qatar) to Milan (Italy) and finally Budapest.
Another Ghanaian colleague flew from Accra but due to a short two-hour layover in Istanbul (Turkey), he landed in Budapest with only hand luggage.
A Nigerian journalist flew from Lagos but landed in Istanbul just 30 minutes to his connecting flight to Budapest. He stayed in Istanbul for another 12 hours. Hungary is a central European country without a formidable national carrier.
Budapest heat, storm!
It is a good time for action here with the sun regularly coming out. However, the temperatures have gotten extremely high inside the National Athletics Centre particularly towards the close of the morning sessions.
Yesterday, it was too hot around lunchtime when the temperature rose to 33°C. As a result, fans, athletes, officials among other individuals at the stadium are consuming lots of drinks, water and juice most.
Ironically, the championship was delayed to start on Saturday because of unexpected morning rain. The start of the men’s 20km race walk was postponed by two hours due to a storm and lightning.
Big Dutch tumbles
Day One of the Budapest Worlds was quite eventful yet sad for some teams on Saturday. The Dutch fans and officials were left mulling after their gold quest fell flat twice.
First, multiple champion Sifan Hassan took a big fall with about 50m left as she led towards the 10000m finish-line.
Hassan had kept looking behind as the Ethiopian trio of Gudaf Tsegay, Letesenbet Gidey and Ejgayehu Taye chased her down in the final stretch.
The Olympic champion Hassan fell and the trio passed her for gold, silver and bronze in that order and by the time she picked herself up with bruised her arm, she only settled for a distant 11th place.
In the next event, another Dutch girl Femke Bol was destined for the 4x400m mixed relay gold but, with American Alexis Holmes closing her down, she fell down with about 10m to the finish-line.
Holmes crossed to lift USA to gold in an improved world record time of three minutes and 8.80 seconds and because the button for Bol fell over the finish-line, the Dutch result turned out to be a DNF (did not finish). Sad!
