Belgian journalist Philippe Vande Weyer says the unforgettable “magic” of the 1991 Tokyo World Athletics Championships, outlined by Mike Powell’s world report lengthy bounce, resurfaced in spirit as Armand Duplantis soared to a different pole vault report.
TOKYO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — For Philippe Vande Weyer, there was little doubt that the spell of 1991 would by no means fairly return, whilst the boys’s lengthy bounce remaining unfolded on Wednesday night time with the World Athletics Championships again in Tokyo after 34 years.
The 63-year-old Belgian, a long-serving journalist together with his dwelling newspaper Le Soir, has lined all however one version of the world championships because the first in Helsinki in 1983. Of all these meets, he says, the 1991 championships on the outdated National Stadium in Tokyo – later demolished and redeveloped for the 2020 Olympic Games – stays essentially the most memorable.
“It’s a long time ago, but I remember a lot about it because I still think it was one of the best world championships of all 20,” Weyer stated. “There was a kind of magic in the air, even before the competition began.”
That sense of electrical energy was confirmed virtually instantly when American famous person Carl Lewis ran 9.86 seconds to set a 100m world report on the opening weekend.
But the second that outlined Tokyo 1991, Weyer insisted, got here within the males’s lengthy bounce remaining. Under intense strain and in humid, storm-like situations, Lewis and his American rival Mike Powell traded history-making leaps. Lewis produced the very best sequence of his profession, together with a wind-assisted 8.91m, nevertheless it was Powell who surprised the world, hovering 8.95m to interrupt Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old report from the 1968 Olympic Games. That mark nonetheless stands in the present day.
“We knew there was a possibility because both guys were in great shape,” Weyer recalled. “Everything was there for that world record at last. I even had a hint that Powell might be the underdog who could do something.”
Two days earlier than the ultimate, Weyer had visited the athletes’ lodge and secured an interview with Powell. “So I felt very, very emotional when he broke the world record.”
For Weyer, the Tokyo championships had been distinctive not just for the lengthy bounce duel, but in addition for a “golden generation” of athletes.
In addition to Carl Lewis, others to emerge included Michael Johnson and Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor, whose excessive bounce world report of two.45 meters nonetheless stands after 32 years.
Since his first world championships’ task in Rome in 1987, Weyer has seen main adjustments in observe know-how and tools, however says the essence of the game stays unchanged. “Athletics is still pure and genuine,” he stated. “It has so much history, so many heroes. That’s what makes it so special.”
The present championships in Tokyo introduced again robust reminiscences. Watching Sweden’s Armand Duplantis as soon as once more break the pole vault world report reminded Weyer of the stormy magic of 1991, although this time the boys’s lengthy bounce remaining fell in need of comparable drama, as Italy’s Mattia Furlani claimed gold with 8.39m.
“Duplantis today is what Powell was in Tokyo in 1991, or what Usain Bolt was in Berlin in 2009,” Weyer stated.