Fredericks and his winning World Athletics Final 5-a-side team mates (© c)
“Right now Frank is in the back, being goalie for his team, but, look how quick he still is, he tackles, gets the ball, and one, two, three strides later, he enters the opponents’ penalty area, a quick dribble, and he SCORES! 10:9 for the World Athletics Final Team with captain Frank Fredericks against the Gymnastics World Championships team. There were only two seconds of the second half left, unbelievable!”
Fredericks, in his function as IAAF Ambassador, visited soccer crazy Stuttgart (Friday 7 July) to promote the IAAF World Athletics Final (9 – 10 September 2006) impressing the audience with his technical ability, his speed, and his ambition during the 4 against 4 Celebrity Soccer event in the ‘FIFA World Cup 3rd place play-off city’ centre of Stuttgart.
“It was like a 200m race: The other team led during the match with up to 4 goals, but they forgot to lean in at the finish line, thus, my team was able to beat them right at the end,” said a highly satisfied Fredericks.
Of course this was a friendly match to attract the audience’s attention to the fact, that just in a few week’s Stuttgart will be again host of a world class athletics event, the IAAF World Athletics Final in the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion.
“I like it here, I feel very good here”, stated Frank. “Coming to Stuttgart for the IAAF World Championships in 1993, I wanted to prove everybody wrong who called me the ‘second Merlene Ottey’ because I had never won a World Championship title outdoors in my career. And it was a very special race because legend Carl Lewis and Britain’s John Regis were both with me in the 200m final and I beat both. It was one of the best feelings of my life going on the victory lap. Since then, Stuttgart has had a special place in my heart.”
Regarding the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, he is convinced that it will be another outstanding athletics event comparable with the World Championships in Athletics in 1993, that no athletic or event fan should miss.
“The World Athletics Final is like a World Championship with the only difference that it is only two days long. You have no heats, only finals and the top-7 athletes of all athletic events will take part. Everybody who will be on the track will be a superstar!”
While Fredericks’ visit in Stuttgart was filled with interviews with local and regional newspapers, he also found time to inaugurate the Talent Day in the market place of Stuttgart which consisted of three athletic disciplines – 20m flying start, standing Long Jump, and Shot Put with a medicine ball. While this event was initiated to motivate kids to get to know athletics better, Frank could not resist this opportunity and sprinted the 20m three times – at the end of the day his record of 2.32 sec. was still standing, no wonder: A world class athlete like Frank does not forget how to sprint, even with less training.
Alexander Knoke for the IAAF
