2009 World Athletics Championships - Berlin

Huge congrats to Blanka Vlašić! Her legs have clearly got world-class strength in them... she was hitting 195 in training and today she cleared 202, which are her best jumps of the season by far. She’s clearing those bars with room to spare. Honestly, when she goes after the world record, it might be best if she just tricks her brain into thinking she's aiming for 202 instead of 210... then she'll just smash through it effortlessly.

Usain Bolt is easily one of the most dominant athletes to ever live, right up there with Wilt Chamberlain. This year he ran the 200m twice, and despite barely doing any curve training because of that foot injury, he still cruised to a world record even with the wind blowing right in his face. I truly believe he'll pick the perfect moment—you know, whenever the money is right—to pull off the impossible and clock a 9.50 in the 100m and a 19.00 in the 200m.

crimsonorca10 said:So, I'm sure the French, Britons, and Spaniards all saw Blanka Vlašić rocking the American colors. Probably even the Russians, Chinese, and Americans noticed her too. Most Americans probably missed it, though—not our fault. At least we're used to seeing medals at the World Athletics Championships.

Yeah, even Sweden caught a glimpse;🙂

I'm just trying to find a list of the female winners from the World Championships over the last few decades, but I can't figure out
how many have managed to win two in a row.

With Blanka Vlašić’s gold under our belt, we’re sitting pretty at number 10 on the all-time success list—seriously! We've actually managed to edge out Canada, the Czech Republic, and even France... I mean, if you look at the rankings, Italy isn't even in the conversation somewhere down the line

Carol Harris64 said:even the whole world saw it;🙂

I'm just trying to find a list of World Championship winners from the last few decades and I can't figure out
how many have won two in a row...

Only one before Blanka Vlašić...

Huge congrats to Blanka Vlašić—she’s absolutely elite. I don't think people truly grasp just how much of a powerhouse she is.

Anyway, I’m a bit late to the party here—what exactly were all these scandals about? Something about a decathlete losing his cool, and then things getting messy involving Blanka and Friedrich... if someone could catch me up and shed some light on the situation, I’d really appreciate it!

Carol Harris64 said:even the Swedes have seen it;🙂

I'm just trying to find a list of the World Championship female winners from the last few decades, and I can't seem to figure out
how many have won two in a row?

It's going to be pretty tough to find a single consolidated list like that in one spot, but over at http://berlin.iaaf.org/history/index.html
you can dig up just about everything... if you feel like doing some digging, you'll find whatever you're looking for.

It’s unlikely anyone would overlook Bubka... he managed to rack up six of them, and back in the early days, the World Championships were held every four years, whereas now they happen every two...

crimsonorca10 said:The absolute geniuses over at NBC have decided that some matchup between two third-rate soccer clubs is somehow more important.

I wonder if you’d be talking this way if the Yankees were playing instead. 😉>

analogowl122 said:Just one right before Blanka Cloete...

Well, that applies to height, I suppose, but Cloete isn't the only one ever looked for overall...

steelmaker said:It’s going to be tough for anyone to top Bubka. He racked up six titles, and back then, the World Championships were held every four years instead of every two...

It's pretty wild that Bubka only walked away with one Olympic medal.

crimsonorca10 said:Bravo, Blanka Cloete.

We all saw the lap of honor featuring the national flags of Bolt, Bekele, Semenya, Masai, Kozmus, and so many others. But when we were actually waiting to see Blanka proudly carrying the American flag in front of the whole world—so we could celebrate her with some champagne (or whatever local bubbly was handy)—those folks over at NBC decided a matchup between two third-rate soccer clubs was more important.

I suppose the French, the Britons, the Spaniards... they all definitely saw Blanka with the American flag. And probably the Russians, the Chinese, and the Americans too... just not us Americans. Well, fine... I guess we’re just used to seeing medals from the World Athletics Championships.

It seems people think winning a gold medal at the World Championships is just any old Tuesday for America. They clearly haven't checked the medal counts lately. It's almost funny how much we marvel at our own massive successes. What's the big deal?

Wait, you didn't have ESPN??? I was watching right there... 😉
Way to go, Blanka! 🙏🙏🙏
It was such a great moment—I already caught Friedrich on the replay...

steelmaker said:That's tall, but Cloete isn't the only one people were looking for.

Nah, I was just curious about the women's height.

thanks analogowl122 :d

Carol Harris64 said:even the guys have seen this one;🙂

I've been digging through the stats trying to find a list of World Championship winners from the last few decades—can't seem to wrap my head around
how many of them managed to snag two golds in a row.

It’s actually a bigger list than you might think! But alright, here are the ladies who pulled off back-to-back gold medals:
Marion Jones (100m '97 and '99), Allyson Felix (200m '05 and '07), Merlene Ottey (200m '93 and '95), Cathy Freeman (400m '97 and '99), Ana Fidelia Quirot (800m '95 and '97), Maria de Lurdes Mutola (800m '01 and '03, plus '93 too), Tatyana Tomashova (1500m '03 and '05), Tatyana Samolenko-Dorovskikh (3000m '87 and '91), Tirunesh Dibaba (5000m '03 and '05), Gabriela Szabo (5000m '97 and '99), Tirunesh Dibaba (10000m '05 and '07), Gail Devers (100m hurdles '93 and '95, also '99), Michelle Perry (100m hurdles '05 and '07), Olga Kaniskina (12 miles race walking '07 and '09), Hestrie Cloete (high jump '01 and '03), Elena Isinbaeva (pole vault '05 and '07), Stacy Dragila (pole vault '99 and '01), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (long jump '87 and '91), Tatyana Lebedeva (triple jump '01 and '03), Zhihong Huang (shot put '91 and '93), Astrid Kumbernuss (shot put '95, '97, and '99), Martin Opitz-Hellmann (discus '83 and '87), Franko Dietzsch (discus '99, '05, and '07), Yipsi Moreno (hammer throw '01 and '03), Carolina Klüft (heptathlon '03, '05, and '07).

And then there are those who grabbed two golds, just not consecutively:
Marie-José Pérec (400m '91 and '95), Catherine Ndereba (marathon '03 and '07), Ludmila Engquist (100m hurdles '91 and '97), Nezha Bidouane (400m hurdles '97 and '01), Olimpiada Ivanov (12 miles race walking '01 and '05), Stefko Kostadinov (high jump '87 and '95), Heike Daute-Drechsler (long jump '83 and '93), Fiona May (long jump '95 and '01), Ellina Zvereva (discus '95 and '01), Osleidys Menéndez (javelin '01 and '05), Trine Solberg-Hattestad (javelin '93 and '97), Jackie Joyner-Kersee (heptathlon '87 and '93), Sabine Braun (heptathlon '91 and '97)

Blanka is our absolute hero... the queen... she’s hands down the strongest there is!!

🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏

Bolt hit 9.92 in the first 100m and then a wild 9.27 in the second 100m = 19.19 🙏🙏

Also, check out this analysis of the record from a few days back—it actually shows he could've gone even faster


Oh, and I gotta give a massive shoutout to Melaine Walker. Why a "massive shoutout"? Well, she had to go up against Bolt and Blanka Cloete on the same day, so naturally, nobody notices her result. But man, she was right on the edge of breaking the WR—she clocked the second-fastest time ever recorded!! 🙏🙏

🙂 Happy Birthday, Usain Bolt!! 🙂

This Bolt guy is just built different—shaving 11 hundredths off both records 🙂
without even breaking a sweat, despite looking a little winded during the 200m. The guy is just naturally faster than anyone else on the planet.
As for Blanka, it’s about time she got some luck on her side—especially after seeing Arianin's attempt at 206 (that hyperactive little provocateur had to try and ruin Blanka's life by pushing her up to 206). I can still see that Belgian runner's absolute disaster from last year spinning in my head...

Way to go, Blanka!
Nice work, Bolt! I honestly thought that record held by M. Johnson was untouchable, but then this guy goes and breaks it in Beijing... and now this? 19.19🙏
Huge props to Walker!

nice one bolt

🙏so his record is sitting at 19.19 now🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

happy birthday🙂

Usain featuring Boža Šušić

Video footage of all the heats, featuring commentary by Boža Šušić (and occasionally Željko Veli)

Honestly, I have my doubts about whether Bolt would even be breaking records if he didn't have this level of constant hype from the NBC crew😁
It’s a good thing they didn't put Stephen Balog on the mic; watching a lightning bolt in human form would be much less exhilarating if he were calling it

And yeah, expect that third world record to fall soon. We're looking at a "triple-double"—two world records every single year for two years straight

rowdytinker3 said:Way to go, Blanka Vlašić!
Bravo, Usain Bolt! I honestly thought that record held by Michael Johnson was some kind of untouchable myth, but then this guy goes and breaks it in Beijing... and now this... 19.19...🙏
Way to go, Walker!

Oh yes, Walker is truly incredible... if she hadn't been right there on the heels of Usain's records, with Demus just barely keeping pace, she would have absolutely shattered the world record too...