A packed back-straight stand at the GE Money Grand Prix in Helsinki adorned by its new roof (© Paula Noronen)
The banners and flags are being unfurled, and the number of championship volunteers, wearing their soon to be familiar blue and white Mizuno uniforms, are visibly increasing on the streets of the Finnish capital.
The 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland, the largest sporting event in the world in 2005 is about to begin in the city which hosted the inaugural event in 1983.
After three years of preparation and planning since the decision by IAAF Council in Nairobi in April 2002 to award the World Championships to Helsinki, the city is set to ‘welcome the athletics world’ from 6-14 August.
It is not all just a matter of competition either, as in the week prior to the event, which will take place in the newly refurbished Olympic stadium, the 45th IAAF Congress will also be hosted by the city. The Congress opening ceremony will take place on 2 August, and will be followed by two daily sessions of discussions and decisions by delegates from nearly the entire global IAAF family.
Last night’s IAAF Grand Prix meeting acted as the final competition dress rehearsal for the championships. “While the organizing committees of the two meetings are different,” Helsinki 2005 CEO Antti Pihlakoski confirmed, “we have had great cooperation with the GE Money Grand Prix. This has allowed us to test a number of areas of the World Championships production, in particular the command system of the Event Presentation, including the stadium audio, the readiness of the chief competition referees, and of course the fundamentals of whether this new track surface is going to be fast or not.”
IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai who was attending the Grand Prix commented on the preparations of the Local Organizing Committee –
“The night was good, very promising. Just twelve days before the World Championships begin it was good to see and hear the great crowd support when the Finnish athletes were doing well. We hope for further success for them especially in the Javelin, Hammer and Long Jump, in which they were strong tonight.”
“Technically, the dress rehearsal was satisfactory with certain polishing of the event presentation still necessary. But these are last minute touches and we are convinced that the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics will be as successful as we believed they would be when the decision was made in Nairobi to award them to Helsinki.”
IAAF
