Fierce thunderstorm causes chaotic scenes at World Championships
Two-hour hold up as Olympic Stadium is blacked out by organisers; no
compensation for drenched crowds
From the outset, the weather has hardly cosseted the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, being held in Helsinki, but Day 4 was something else again: a storm of almost tropical dimensions, complete with high winds and lightning, forced the organisers to hold up proceedings for almost two hours.
For safety reasons, the entire Olympic Stadium was powered down, and TV broadcasts were abruptly interrupted. Some events have had to be rescheduled for today and Thursday.
The storm that swept over Southern Finland (see separate article) brought the kind of driving rain that is seldom seen here, and the track was awash with water, rendering events like the women's 100 metres hurdles genuinely life-threatening.
Equally dangerous was the lightning, which eventually forced a decision to switch off all the electrical devices in the stadium: timing and measuring equipment, computers, TV monitors, and even the large video screens.
The confusion was compounded by the fact that the hardy souls in the grandstands who stayed to brave the elements were not immediately aware of what was going on, either through loudspeaker announcements or from the blanked-out video screens.
The organisers also came in for complaints from some of the competitors, who received two conflicting threads of information: that the games would continue or that they would be interrupted.
Antti Pihlakoski, CEO of the Organising Committee, expressed his regret at the situation, but said that the team had come through the extraordinary deluge relatively well in the circumstances. No returns on tickets will be given, as this was a force majeure situation, the Organising Committee announced late on Tuesday.
After around two hours of truly wild monsoon conditions, the weather reverted to the normally fickle Finnish summer norm.
The new competition programme for the latter part of the evening contained relatively few changes: of the finals, only the women's discus throw was postponed until Thursday. The second round of heats for the men's 200 metres and the qualification for the men's triple jump will be held today.
Details of programme changes can be found from the official games site, linked below.
Those of the 28,000 crowd who stayed behind to wait for a resumption displayed remarkable stoicism, and there was even the bizarre sight of "Mexico waves" being sent around the arena not very long after real waves had lapped on the track.
The World Championships began on Saturday morning under clear skies, but by the time of the official opening ceremonies in the evening, the skies opened. Sunday was a pleasant enough day, but heavy rain fell on Monday, and then perversely the morning session on Tuesday was carried through in warm sunshine. Even so, the gusting, swirling wind provided a warning of what was to come later, and produced some eyebrow-raising times - and a measure of luck for some competitors - in the 200 metres heats.
The organisers will naturally be uncomfortable with the news that the depression that brought Tuesday's fireworks and deluge is set to hang around all week. With the exception of today, Wednesday, there are still unsold tickets for all sessions, and impulse buyers may think twice before venturing out into the teeth of another storm.
Links:
IAAF World Championships
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 10.8.2005 - TODAY |
Fierce thunderstorm causes chaotic scenes at World Championships
|
|
