Lima ’24: Another day out at the athletics
Day 236: Friday 30th August
It didn’t quite match the extraordinary fever-pitch atmosphere of my night at the Jamaican National Championships in June, but then what ever could?
The tickets for the afternoon session of the World Under 20 Athletics Championships at the Estadio Atletico de la Videna in Lima were only 25 soles (just over £5), and I arrived promptly at the 3.30 start time. This was a wise move on my part, as it gave me free pick of the good seats, as the tickets didn’t allocate specific seating. Unlike the deep bowl of the Jamaican National Stadium, this was a shallow dish. You couldn’t have your Weetabix out of it, put it that way!
It seemed very clean and modern, and a quick Google search confirmed that it was built by Fujimori’s authoritarian government in 1993 (as an aside, I was in Cusco when Peru’s most controversial president passed away, after which there were three days of national mourning). With a 6,000 capacity, I walked along the raised platformed which arced around the top bend of the track, and found an excellent seat just 5 rows up from the track, about 20m past the finish line, so that I was in front of the starting blocks of lane 5 for the 400m events.
To my left was the athletes, family, and coaches’ section, which was half-filled by the large Australian contingent in their gold and green tracksuits. I felt like I was right in the midst of the action, with parents running down the aisle right next to me to congratulate their children, and coaches filing past to give instructions to their prodigies. One of the highlights of the session was the men’s high jump final, conducted at my end of the stadium. The competition saw the US pip the Italian crowd favourite, the latter of whose coach stood just over my left shoulder with his iPad recording every effort before leaping down to the railings to consult his athlete.
The events came thick and fast, and I told myself that I need to go to more athletics meets when I’m back home – they’re such good value for money with all the events taking place at the same time. In the session’s four hours I saw the conclusion of the men’s decathlon, the men’s pole vault, long jump, high jump, the women’s javelin and shot put, and on the track, both sets’ 400m hurdle semis, the 800m finals, the 200m finals, and the women’s 3,000m final involving two Brits – Jess Bailey and Inness Fitzgerald – both of whom ran personal bests.
The best event for the British team was saved for last though, with 16-year-old Jake Odey-Jordan claiming bronze in the men’s 200m from lane 2. He ran an immense bend and finished strongly to claim a podium spot against guys two or three years his senior, so there’s a name to keep a close eye on in the years to come.
Overall, the atmosphere was fantastic, with a really positive, friendly, inclusive vibe from all the athletes to my left, who by the end of the evening were busy exchanging tracksuits and vests. I left the stadium at 7 feeling a buzz of excitement and joy, whilst my Metro ride home was rather simpler and less fraught with danger than the cab ride back from the Jamaican Championships, which dropped me off at a rather perilous five-minute walk from my Airbnb.