World Championships!

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been lucky enough to catch  plenty of the IAAF world Athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea. What a spectacular competition it was. Drama across theboard. I love big athletics events like this because there's such a massive variety of sports on show, its great to learn all the little details you didn't know before and such a wide range of athletes means you not only get some wonderful stories but you aadopt new favourites too. I invariably end up adopting lots of new people at these big events, as if I don't support enough people as it is.
And this championships, my favourite was most definitely Oscar Pistorius. I love that guy. What an inspiration he is, not only is he a multiple paralympic champion but he's now pushing the boundaries of athletics in qualifying for these championships and pushing for the olympics. I read an article about his training and the amount of effort he puts in is absolutely herculean. Not only that but he's so charming in interviews, just the most humble and positive guy. I've just been so blown away by pretty much everything I've seen of him. Unfortunately he didn't qualify from his heat for the 400 metres but he did run the first leg of a national record breaking performance by the South Africa team in the 4x 400m relay. Even when the team dropped him for the final on the flimisiest pretext he still remained upbeat and postive and thanks to his earlier contribution still received a silver medal when the team came home second. I was cheering so loud for South Africa in the relay final my neighbours must have been confused as to why exactly I was screaming "Come on LJ! Do It for Oscar! FASTER!" But such are the consequences of living next door to Sports Wall HQ. Another new favourite I've adopted is Christophe Lemaitre. His performance in the 200m final was fabulous, bringing in a massive PB and guaranteeing another noisy morning for HQs neighbours. I also enjoyed the pole vault which gave us the brilliant sight of some guy's pole snapping in half as he levered himself upwards. The throwing events are always massively entertaining with one of my old favourites from the Berlin event Robert Harting bringing back a classic move of ripping his shirt literally in two as his celebration. Another old favourite I enjoyed again was Blanka Vlasic and her little high jumping victory dance, I love heer feisty, quirky spirit. Another South Africa I was cheering for was Caster Semenya, I really wanted to see her do well after the awful experience she was subjected to of being gender tested. Like Caster, I know how horrifying it is when random strangers mistake you for a boy. Its the worst thing a girl can hear. So I really admire her for just getting on with it, not letting it get her down and going out there and proving them all wrong by winning a silver medal. What a fabulous example she is. For me she embodies the power of being yourself and the biggest victory and best "screw you" to all the people who try to bring us down for being different. We love you Caster. If the world championships are this good, roll on the olympics I say.