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Lessons to be learned from Berlin

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Roger Mosey | 13:25 UK time, Tuesday, 25 August 2009

So the Athletics World Championships in Berlin more than lived up to expectations.

For the sport, Usain Bolt's brilliance and supremacy was confirmed. For Britain, Jessica Ennis (below) achieved the stardom we'd all hoped for - and will no doubt deliver a big moment at this year's Sports Personality in her home city of Sheffield.

Phillips Idowu lived up to expectations, too. And for broadcasters, there were some terrific audiences: more than five million in Britain for the 100m final and figures in the 2m-3m range throughout.

Ennis shows off her gold medal

There were, of course, less happy stories.

Few big sports events avoid making the news pages, and this time is was in the unforgiving spotlight; but at least so far there's been no major recurrence of the drugs issues that beset athletics - and overwhelmingly it was the performances on track and field that stick in the mind.

All of which, from a London 2012 perspective, is good news.

The London organisers will have been watching Berlin closely and there will be lessons learned about logistics and organisation.

Nobody should underestimate how much detailed and athletics will be just one of 26 London Olympic sports. But there are also striking things about the way the World Championships looked:

That bright blue track. It's put at the door of the Hertha Berlin football team who but it challenges the traditional assumptions about what looks good for spectators and television audiences.

The medal ceremonies. They were staged at one end of the stadium - and the medals were (or you may think rectangular).

And finally, that Bear. I see my colleague Tom Fordyce is already on Berlino's case and his fame is global from to .

We'd expect by this time next year to know what London 2012's mascot will be, and Berlino has certainly set a standard - whether you want to celebrate the way he brought some fun to the Championships or bop him with a German sausage.

Will London go cuddly like most mascots, or could it echo the ?

The nation and the world are waiting...

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I really enjoyed the World Athletics Championships, the best that I can remember. The Sunday night and Thrilling Thursday was sport at its best.

    I wasn't so keen on the blue track though.

    The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú coverage was excellent as ever, although it did seem odd that Hazel left early.

    Also does anyone know why the excellent Five Live correspondent Mike Costello was missing for the last two days?

  • Comment number 2.

    Can Someone please tell me why our olympic athletes are known as TEAM GB and not TEAM UK??? Surely this title is an insult to the people of Northern Ireland who are also competing for medals for the UK

  • Comment number 3.

    Bristlehoundog - it's a good question and I'll aim to blog about it at greater length in September.

  • Comment number 4.

    I'd fallen out of love with athletics in recent years, but Berlin recaptured some of it's magic for me, helped alot by Usain Bolt and also better performances from the Brits, who are going home with more medals and less excuses than usual.

    Coverage outstanding as usual - Michael Johnson is simply the best pundit in any sport. Good to see John Inverdale not confined to the radio too and Hazel Irvine finally handling the main events after many years covering the morning sessions.

  • Comment number 5.

    While I understood Roger's reasons for the studio bound linking for Osaka 2007, I think we can see now how much better the Berlin presentation was. Well done.

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