by Stuart Weir
Sunette Viljoen, photo by PhotoRun.net
Stuart Weir is one of the key writers that I am fortunate to not only work with, but call friends. Stu, Dave Hunter, Linsday Rossmiller, Cathal Dennehy, Justin Lagat, Mark Winitz, Elliott Denman, Cait Chock, Carles Baronet, Alfonz Juck and our partners, The Shoe Addicts, all provide fascinating views of the culture and condition of our sport. For us to appreciate athletics, we must undersand where it has been. For us to change the sport in the future, we have to understand its present circumstances.
I love the Golden Gala in Rome. The Stadio Olympico is a magnificent arena. Originally built in 1937 it became the Olympic Stadium when Rome hosted the Olympics in 1960. After hosting the 1987 IAAF World Championships it was rebuilt for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. It is home to football (soccer) clubs Lazio and Roma as well as international rugby.
Athletes and the media are transported to the stadium in buses with police motor cycle outriders who enable the bus to weave in and out of traffic and through red lights. The police motor-cyclists see it as an affront if the bus ever has to stop!
The evening included some stellar performances:
Almaz Ayana (Ethiopia) winning the women’s 5,000 in a world lead of 14:12.59, finishing by 21 seconds ahead of Mercy Cherona who was second;
Valerie Adams (New Zealand) back on winning ways in the shot;
Castor Semanya (South Africa) winning the 800 in 1.56.64
A cracking women’s 100 metres which saw Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) winning in 10.87 from English Gardner (USA) in 10.92.
But, for my first the first time ever, I want to feature the women’s javelin which was won by Sunette Viljoen (South Africa) with a series of 58.99, 60.53, 61.95, 59.86, 61.67 and 59.54. Madara Palmameika (Latvia) was second achieving 61.92 with her final throw.
The layout of the arena left something to be desired with the women’s pole vault and javelin taking place at the same time, on the same part of the arena, with the run ups for the two events, cutting across each other!
Sunette described it as “a very difficult competition, very tough mentally”. It did not start well: “First of all we did not get a proper warm-up. I think each competitor only got two warm-up throws at most and then they stopped us and then the competition had to start – before we had had a throw of a full run-up”.
With the run-up for the javelin starting on the track and crossing the pole vault run-up, the throwers were waiting for races and also alternating with pole-vaulters: Viljoen said: “The competition was very long and some times we were waiting 10 minutes between throws because of the pole vault. We were alternating javelin, pole-vault, javelin, pole-vault. At times the officials got confused about whether a pole vaulter should be jumping or a javelin-thrower throwing and we were standing there, waiting, waiting, waiting.”
Brittany Reese tweeted – during the Rome Diamond League: “They really need to change that new rule for the field… They don’t understand how much energy we put into each jump … So having a final with 4 athletes will lead to a lot of people passing !They are taking the fun out of the events”.
Viljoen took a different approach: “It was difficult but it is the same for everyone and you have to be able to perform under those conditions. It was not about distance tonight but about staying calm and performing well under those circumstances”.
When Viljoen took her third throw she was in third place, but for her that is the essence of the competition: “It is something that I thrive on. If someone produces a big throw, I know I have it in me to chase the throw. It is the strength that God gives me – I pray during competitions for calmness. At the moment I am at a very good fitness level and that is something we have been working on so that I can produce six throws and I am able to fight to the last one. Each throw is a new page and I always tell myself to focus on it, to calm down between throws and then to start focussing again. Tonight was about producing good throws in tough conditions – that is very mental”.
This was Viljoen’s second Diamond League win of the season – she had previously won in Doha with 65.14 and, as she was quick to tell me, her first ever win in Rome.
As the old saying goes: when the going gets tough, the tough get going, could have been written just for Sunette Viljoen. And she got her reward in Rome.
