Shaheen, Kipketer, Martinez at the at Zürich’s famous Letzigrund stadium (© Dieter Baumgartner)
Zürich, Switzerland“The Weltklasse in Zürich was always special to me, already when I was young because it was televised and the most famous competition in Kenya”, stated Qatar’s World 3000m Steeplechase champion and World recordholder Saif Saaeed Shaheen (formerly the Kenyan Stephen Cherono) during a press event at Zürich’s famous Letzigrund stadium, yesterday.
And it will be even more special this year due to the fact that it is the last time that the IAAF Golden League meeting in Zürich will take place in the old stadium.
Construction is ongoing to replace the old Letzigrund with a new stadium where up to 28,000 spectators can be seated during “Weltklasse”. Meeting Director and EAA President Hansjörg Wirz emphasised that the meetings in 2006 and 2007 will take place, with the same quality and atmosphere for which the meeting was known in the past. For this year’s meeting, the only difference will be that the warm-up track will be relocated and will be 500m away from the track. A shuttle will take the athletes to the warm-up track and back to the stadium. The interior of the Letzigrund will stay the same and still have the famous final curve with no seats but the most cheerful fans known to athletics standing. In 2007, the meeting will already take place in the newly-built stadium.
While Christine Arron, Jeremy Wariner, Kenenisa Bekele and Kajsa Bergqvist have signed contracts with all 6 IAAF Golden League meetings in the last weeks, Said Saaeed Shaheen will focus his whole 2006 season on the meeting in Zürich only. Struggling on the last water jump in last year’s “Weltklasse”, he missed on improving his own World record in the 3000m Steeplechase, but still won the race.
“I want to improve on my winning streak here in Zurich. I won four times, but I want to challenge Maria Mutola’s winning record of 13 wins in a row. I also want to challenge my own World record here but this depends on how well I can recover from my injury,” said Shaheen.
Another athlete who dominated his event, the 800m in his case, was Wilson Kipketer, who visited Zürich yesterday in his role as IAAF Ambassador promoting the Golden League meetings.
“It feels good to come back as an Ambassador to a place like Zürich where it feels as if I am coming back to friends,” said World 800m record holder Kipketer. “Being an Ambassador I am not as stressed as during those times when I competed here. Instead, I have the chance to help to improve the image of my sport, to give back to athletics but also to the young athletes by motivating and somehow mentoring them. It was very interesting to me to get to know more about the plans for 2006 and 2007 and I would really like to test the new track and see if it is as fast as the last one.” Saying this he smiled and made it clear that that he does not mean that he is planning a comeback!
But, especially the Swiss athletic fans can be excited to experience a “comeback” of a former Cuban athlete as a new Swiss citizen: Alexander Martinez will wear the Swiss national team gear when he will compete in the European Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg because from this season he got Swiss citizenship.
“I have competed in Weltklasse in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and it was always a very good and special atmosphere to compete in Zürich,”said Martinez. “This year it will be even more exciting being a Swiss citizen and the fans might even shout a little bit louder now that I am their compatriot! It is amazing to jump in a filled up Letzigrund stadium, it’s crazy. It is really the best meeting in the world for me.”
The stadium might change its size and design, but all three athletes agreed on one thing that makes Zürich so special: The atmosphere and the fact that the organizers take care of all athletes and make them feel at home – the young ones and the old ones, the superstars and the youngsters. Good luck “Weltklasse” one more time in your old surroundings and good luck in your new outfit!
Alexandra Knoke for the IAAF