Weather report
It rained in Glasgow on Tuesday 28 July. Nonetheless, the action carried on as before. There were casualties. Amy Hunt lost three of her acrylic nails on the starting blocks. In fact, Amy told us: “My fingers were underwater, but you just have to roll with the punches at champs.” What a heroine. An official report described the weather as “filthy, splashing and dashing through torrential rain”; personally I did not think it was that good! The real heroes were the stadium staff who pushed giant squeegee machines over the surface to soak up the water. They absorb 60 liters per minute – the squeegees, not the men – but nothing could prevent the track from turning into a 100m slip and slide.
Billy Connolly, a Glasgow comedian, once explained: “There are two seasons in Scotland: June and winter.” It was an inconvenience for the sprinters. The 10K field, cross-country runners to a man, probably enjoyed it – on second thoughts probably not the Africans!
The ones who suffered most were the field eventers. Nicola Olyslagers, one of the world’s top high jumpers, came out to warm up – an unfortunate term on a cold, wet evening – at about 6.30 to prepare for a 7.05pm start. Olyslagers had her first jump at 9.20pm. It was a mixed-ability event like so many of the Commonwealth disciplines. The bar started at 1.72. Faith Kipsang had one failure and retired for her own self-preservation. By the time the bar reached 1.82, half the field were gone. There was a suspension for weather and then a resumption. In all honesty, the weather was no better after the resumption than before!
Morgan Lake, a 2m jumper, had three failures at 1.82 – lack of ability? Never. Lack of confidence in throwing oneself into the air off a wet, slippery run-up – 100%. That Olyslagers had 3 failures out of 5 attempts at 1.90 and below – tells you all you need to know. Eleanor Patterson won with 1.96, with Olyslagers second at 1.93 and Temotope Adeshina third, the only other athlete to reach 1.90. It was pretty bad too for Camryn Rogers and her fellow hammer throwers.
Eleanor Patterson is a mistress of the understatement! She commented: “The rain just messed things up.” And to make the point further, “I think the rain changed some things”. She added:
“My run-up was thrown off because they were trying to dry the water on the track. After I remeasured it, I was cold, so I started losing energy for my jumps”.
Olyslagers was brilliant at seeing the positives, explaining: “Throughout Australia as well, I think it’s been a memorable night that people are waking up, having their breakfast cereal, and watching a world-class high jump competition in the rain”.
She explained too where she got the strength to compete in the conditions: “I know it’s a great pressure that reveals the foundation, and for me that comes down to the reason I’m in sport: God’s given me a gift, and it’s my gift to give back to Him. So when I have all of the pressure and the rain and the crowd and the wind and the cold, I look to Him and just say, ‘This is a passion that You’ve given me. I’m giving it back.’ It gives me this kind of fire that the rain can never drown out”.
Olyslagers also revealed that she was sitting in the call room “while the officials were discussing whether to cancel tonight and postpone it”. I think they made the wrong decision.
