The City of Edmonton hosted ten days of international track and field competition, the 8th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, from August 3rd to August 12, 2001. I was fortunate to attend a day of competition in the newly renovated Commonwealth Stadium as well as the Day 9 and 10 road events.
Two days before the World Championships began, I walked around Commonwealth Stadium. Roads were already closed and some access to the stadium was restricted. There were long lineups of opening ceremony performers outside Gate 9; each group waiting for their final rehearsals. A staging area with tents was set up in the LRT parking lot across the street. The country standard bearers filed out of the parking lot and toward the stadium in a seemingly endless stream. One of them told me there were over 200 countries participating in the Championships (210 to be exact).
Television highlights fail to capture the excitement and drama of these athetes' endeavors. The local broadcast by CBC was somewhat disappointing in the number of commercial advertising breaks and the choppy coverage of events - here's a jumper, next a race, commercial break, two throws and a jump, another break. I know it's difficult to fit a day of competition into two hours of prime-time television. That's just one reason it's better to see the action in person.
The daily competition programme was nicely done and reasonably priced at $2.00. It included a comprehensive daily schedule, a brief description of featured events for that day, as well as all competition results and medal standings to date.
The **FREE** Royal Bank Guide to The Worlds is a very good guide which covers tourism information (attractions, special events such as the Festival of the World's, maps and phone numbers) as well as athletic event history, records and champions.
