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Published: August 25th 2023
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The last 4 days have been mainly spent at the stadium. On both Monday and Tuesday there was no morning session so we rested in our room. Monday we walked up to ErzsΓ©bet Square where we had a great lunch at Il Pasteo, an Italian restaurant on the edge of the square. Great food and service. It was very hot so we were glad to retreat back to the hotel after a short stroll. The evening session highlight was the Men's Discus where Matt Denny was competing. What a comp!! Matt threw a new Australian record but that was only good enough for 4th!!
On Tuesday, we again rested before going back to the shopping area, venturing further along the Visci utca but the heat got the better of us. We stopped at the Cyrano restaurant where we had another lovely lunch. We lingered there for awhile and had a very nice Hungarian rose. They do make nice wine here. That night we enjoyed the program, especially the Men's High Jump, but Brandon was not able to medal. Fascinating battle though with Tamberi from Italy winning and Barshim from Qatar only coming 3rd. The women's 1500 saw Jess Hull run well
but finish 7th. This track is fast with most times better than previous Championships.
Wednesday we went to the track in the morning to watch the pole vault qualifying for the men. Kurtis Marschall jumped well, easily making the final. The women's Javelin qualifying was more tense. Katherine Mitchell threw the distance on her first throw, but Kelsey-Lee Barber didn't qualify automatically but had to wait for the results of the second pool before just sneaking into the final at 12th place. Mackenzie Little waited for her third throw before registering over 63 metres for her place. Fingers crossed, we could get a clean sweep in this event!
The evening program featured the Women's Pole Vault and what a competition. Nina Kennedy had to break the Australian record twice before tying for first on 4-90 with Katie Moon from the USA. Great sportsmanship from both women as they agreed to share the gold rather than have a jump off. Fantastic!!! Michelle Jenneke tried hard in the semifinal of the 100 hurdles but wasn't able to make the final.
On Thursday morning, the 35km walk was the only event. We slept in, watched the finish on TV then went to the
Marriott Hotel where a Gender Equity Seminar was being held. We had both been invited to attend. World Athletics is very proud of the fact that the Council, which consists of 26 people now has 13 men and 13 women. An interesting morning. We then had been invited to the Athletics Australia reception. Yvonne had ordered a van to take 8 of us to Margaret Island where the team was staying. After a wait we managed to get the transport and were driven to the venue. The function was held on the terrace but it was not the usual Aussie hospitality. Only water to drink and the food was awful, all deep fried stuff like chicken nuggets and mini hamburgers. The company was good though. Bruce McAvaney interviewed Nina and this was excellent. Afterwards we were able to catch up with Bruce who credited Fletcher for teaching him about the sport back in 1983. Amazing that we have known him for 40 years.
That night the track was still very warm but the action was even hotter. The men's 5000m had two Aussies trying to get through to the final. Stewart Mc Sweyn was tripped and though he finished the
race, was well out of the first 8 places. After lodging a protest he was added to the final. Morgan Mac Donald tried hard but didn't finish high enough. The Long Jump final was exciting. Two men were tied on 8-50 until the Greek champion, Tentacoglou, jumped 8-52 on his last jump. Third was decided on a countback. The night finished with Femke Bol blitzing the 400m hurdles to win by a large margin.
3 more days of competition left. Once again, the Aths has been great and Budapest is a beautiful city.
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