The Sunday News
THE IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 could potentially be the biggest world championship in the 15 editions of the event, which started in 1983 and ranks among the world’s leading sport’s events.
The Championships explodes into life from next Sunday to 30 August.
With one week to go, the final entries indicate that 207 IAAF Member Federations will send representatives to the Chinese capital for the most important sporting event of the year.
The previous highest number of participating federations was 203, at the last championships in Moscow two years ago.
No less than 1 936 athletes (1 043 men and 893 women) have been entered.
Although the number of athletes that will finally participate in Beijing will be slightly less, as is normal, this figure still compares favourably with the current highest total of 1 895 who competed at the 2009 championships in Berlin.
The numbers have been boosted by the IAAF’s innovative system introduced ahead of these championships of inviting athletes who had not already been entered by the deadline of midnight (Central European Time) 10 August, on the basis being them being among the best ranked in their event (apart from in long distance and walking disciplines) to bring an event up to an optimum number of competitors as established by the IAAF.
With just one week to go, the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 is expected to set the standard for the sport’s future championships, with the world’s best athletes going through their paces in the same Bird’s Nest stadium that was the centrepiece for a magnificent Olympic Games in 2008.
As already announced, the Bird’s Nest stadium will be full for all the evening sessions across the nine days, with an audience of 50 000 spectators.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe marathon runners Cuthbert Nyasango, Gilbert Mutandiro, and Cephas Pasipamire, will set the ball rolling for Zimbabwe when the take part in marathon event on Sunday, while Tatenda Tsumba will take part in the 200m heats of 25 August.
Zimbabwe had just two athletes at the last edition of the Championships in Moscow, Russia, where Mvumvure’s campaign ended in the 100m semi-finals while Pasipamire finished outside the top 10 in the marathon. — IAAF-Sports Reporter
