ATHLETICS ACTION
We were up early for the athletics, leaving at 7 am from Seremban for Bukit Jalil. After arriving we managed to see the Men's 100m Heats with the likes of Ato Boldon, Frankie Fredericks, Obadele Thompson plus the Brits, Darren Campbell, Dwain Chambers, Christian Malcolm and Marlon Devonish. Though it was only the heats, there was a huge support for the athletes, and huge roars especially for Boldon and Fredericks.
But we also got to see Denise Lewis in action in the heptathlon and was always in control, though her great friend and former British hurdler did lead after the first event (the 100m Hurdles).
There were also the Men's
400m heats, in which we saw the Brits, who are best in the world (except
for a certain Michael Johnson), compete. Iwan Thomas (WAL), Mark Richardson
(ENG), Jamie Baulch (WAL) and Solomon Wariso (ENG) all progressed to the
semis, but none even bothered about winning the heats really. They were
more concerned in making it look easy.
In the evening there was the 100m QF's which saw the big guns reaching the semi-finals safely.
The second day was just as good, if not better with medals up for grabs.
The morning saw the heptathlon
and decathlon (Du'aine Ladejo for England was the crowd favourite) in which
the Brits had a mixed day. Denise Lewis continued her run for England,
Clova Court was carried off later with heat exhaustion and Du'aine
almost went out of the competition with two fouls in the first two of his
long jumps. He scraped through with a very safe jump in the final round.
Anyway, the morning saw a lot of action, but there was more in the evening.
The highlight of the evening was for the 100m finals (men and women). Before that though were 400m semi-finals where Jamie Baulch and Iwan Thomas having a little tongue-and-cheek "chat" down the finishing straight.
More great news for the Brits also, when Bob Wier threw a Games Record in the hammer. And Du'aine Ladejo had the crowd on the edge of their seats in the high jump.
There was a great atmosphere in the stadium, which was at its most packed so far in the athletics events. There were a few Mexican Waves going on which at one time managed to go round with all three tiers of the stadium doing it. Even some of those in the Royal Box joined in. There was huge support for the athletes also in the field events with the crowd clapping and willing them on.
The crowd was not very knowledgeable, after all there aren't many athletics events in Malaysia. They were also very passionate. The support for the Malaysian athletes was amazing. In fact, I believe some of the athletes did lift their performance and qualified for later rounds.
But the only bad thing I can say about the crowd was that they did not know about the siren that went off before the start of races, to ask the crowd to be silent. Nor were they ever made aware of the meaning of the siren. Consequently, we saw false starts and faulty ones because of the noise distractions on the sprinters.
But they did manage to
quiet the crowd down for the final of the men's 100m. This was an
epic battle. This was the race to watch. The line-up included Ato Boldon
(TRI), the fastest man in the world this year, Frankie Fredericks (NAM),
the 200m World Champion, Obadele Thompson, the World Cup winner, Darren
Campbell (ENG), European Champion and Christian Malcolm (WAL), the World
Junior Champion. It was a great 10 seconds with Ato Boldon winning it in
a new Games Record.
Well, that ended our trip.
We were to leave Malaysia the next day. Once back in London we were watching
it on TV again with BBC Sport. But it wasn't as good as being there
live. Nevertheless it was one of the greatest sporting events I've
been to.
There are more images
in my photo gallery.
Malaysia Index | INTRO | PART I - RETURN: Family | PART II - CG98: (i) The Games Begin | (ii) Athletics Action
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Asia Index | HK Part
I | HK
Part II
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A Mak Designs Production 1998. Designed by Lester Mak. Last updated
3 Sep 99.