| The world at their feet |
|
The 12th Athletics World Championships take place in Berlin 15-23 August. Almost exactly one year on from the Beijing Olympics athletes will be seeking to confirm their status as world number 1, others will be seeking to make up for a disappointment in last year’s Olympics. Inevitably much attention will centre on Usain Bolt’s attempt to add three World Championship titles to his three Olympic titles – 100, 200 and 4 by 100. He couldn’t break the world record in all three events like he did in Beijing – or could he? Catherine Ndereba and Allyson Felix will go to Berlin determined to re-establish themselves. They have some things in common – world championship golds and Olympic silvers but there are also some significant differences. Catherine had to wait until she was 32 before she competed in her first Olympics. In contrast, Allyson Felix was only 17 when she won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics. Allyson takes just 22 seconds to win her medals – Catherine, over 2 hours. Catherine at 37 is in the twilight of her career – but don’t forget that the winner of the women’s marathon gold medal in Beijing, Constantina Dita, was 38. Catherine’s record in the past three world championships speaks for itself. Gold in 2007, silver in 2005 and gold in 2003. Add to that silver medals in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008 – not to mention wins in 4 Boston and 2 Chicago marathons as well as five second place finishes in major city marathons. Catherine has a very simple approach to running – as she told me a few days before coming seventh in the 2009 London Marathon. ‘My chances are always 50-50. I might win and I might lose!‘ OK, but she certainly wins more than she loses. Of not being selected for the 2000 Olympics, Catherine says: ‘My biggest disappointment in my running career is when I didn’t make the team for the Olympic year 2000. I did cope with that disappointment… It was so painful but all I said was if this is not God’s will for me to be there, well I’ll just wait and ask God to give me the grace and the patience to just wait upon him because when it comes and it is his time, I am sure everything will work so well.’ Like Catherine, Allyson has enjoyed greater World Championship success in the World Championships than in the Olympics. In the 2005 World Championships she won gold in the 200 metres and successfully defended her title in 2007 – adding gold in the 4 by 100 and 4 by 400 relays. In the 2004 and 2008 Olympics she had to settle for silver in the 200 but did gain a gold medal in the 4 by 400 metres relay in Beijing. Yet running is kept in perspective: ‘I can’t imagine my life without knowing Jesus. I can’t imagine just waking up and going through my life without him so you know he is my life and that’s what I live for’.  Both runners see the death of Jesus Christ on a cross 2000 years ago as the focal point in history: Catherine: ‘Jesus died because of my sins, because he loves me so much and he wouldn’t like me to die or have eternal destruction so that is why he offered Jesus to die on the cross on my behalf, so that I may live with him’. Allyson: ‘The Gospel message is Jesus being our saviour and dying on the cross for us and we don’t have to be lost, that we can come to him and he can save us and we can follow him and have a purpose in life.’ Just don’t be surprised if that purpose in life includes another two medals in Berlin. By Stuart Weir |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
