So this is where I would normally tell you what a good year it was for athletics. But where’s the fun in that? Instead, take your turn at the World Athletics Quiz 2009. Why not call or text friends for some help, too?
1 Who, according to some newspaper survey, caused the biggest fuss at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin?
(a) Usain Bolt.
(b) Kenenisa Bekele.
(c) Caster Semenya.
(d)Berlino, the cuddly-bear mascot.
2 What question was Usain Bolt asked at those World Championships that prompted him to answer, “I keep telling you guys, my main aim is to become a legend”?
(a) Was that really you playing DJ in the Yam Club at four in the morning?
(b) Do you realise they’re now imitating your archer-like winning pose in the English Premiership?
(c) Did you ever believe you’d come to Berlin and set world records in 100 and 200 metres?
(d) Is it true the main staple of your diet is still chicken nuggets?
3 Which of these four stand-out feats in Berlin was voted the performance of the year by a group of distinguished Irish athletics journalists?
(a) David Gillick becoming the first Irish athlete to make the final of the 400 metres, where he finished an excellent sixth.
(b) Derval O’Rourke just missing a medal in the 100 metres hurdles when finishing fourth in an Irish record of 12.67 seconds.
(c) The Irish Times athletics correspondent nearly beating 800 metres world record holder Wilson Kipketer in the media race.
(d) Olive Loughnane becoming only the fourth Irish athlete to medal at the World Championships with her fantastic second place in the 20km walk.
Match the four athletes to the achievements.
4Ciara Mageean
5Sonia O'Sullivan
6Mary Cullen
7Annette Kealy
(a)Broke one of Sonia O'Sullivan's records: over 3,000 metres, indoors.
(b)Broke two of Sonia O'Sullivan's records O'Sullivanover 800 metres: the Irish Schools record, and then the Irish Junior record.
(c)was top Irish woman in the Dublin marathon, nine years after Sonia O'Sullivan was.
(d)Acted as deputy chef de mission at the European Youth Olympics in Finland, where Ciara Mageean broke another Irish Junior record, over 1,500 metres.
8True or false: Yelena Isinbayeva (pictured) failed to clear a single height in the pole vault at the World Championships but came out 10 days later in Zurich and improved the world record to 5.06 metres.
Who did what in 2009?
9Thomas Chamney
10Paul Hession
11Olive Loughnane
12Usain Bolt
(a) "I promised my little daughter, Eimear, I was going to bring her home a medal, so she'll be very happy."
(b) "9.4 is possible. I think 9.4 is going to be the limit for the 100 metres"
(c) "To go out in the first round, I'm just gutted. It doesn't reflect all the work I've done coming here."
(d) "I'm devestated not to make the final. I feel like the nearly man, once again.
13What exactly was Alistair Cragg referring to at the World Championships when he said, "and then I just fell asleep"?
(a) The long wait for a doping test after his heat of the 5,000 metres.
(b) His reason for losing a prime position four laps from home, thus failing to make the final of the 5,000 metres.
(c) The result of watching the slow early laps of the 5,000 metres final.
(d) What he did after returning to his hotel after failing to make the 5,000 metres final.
14True or false: Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk threw a world hammer record of 77.96 metres in Berlin, on her second attempt, then jumped so high in celebration she sprained her ankle, forcing her to miss her remaining attempts, although that throw still won her the gold medal.
Match the number with what it represents:
15The total of World Championship gold medals now won by Kenenisa Bekele, between track and cross country, individual and team, following his 5,000-10,000 metre double in Berlin.
16The number of countries among the 202 represented which managed to win medals at the World Championships in Berlin.
17The number of medals Ireland has now won in all editions of the World Championships.
18The number of times David Gillick broke 45 seconds for the 400 metres this summer, having never done it before.
(a) 32
(b) 3
(c) 24
(d) 5
19Which television clip from the World Championships in Berlin quickly became the most viewed video of the week on YouTube?
(a) Usain Bolt’s celebration dance following his 100 metres world record of 9.58 seconds.
(b) The slow motion replay of Jessica Ennis winning several events in the heptathlon.
(c) Berlino, the championship mascot, crashing blindly into a hurdle cart with gold medallist Melaine Walker riding piggyback.
(d) The US 100 metre relay team’s dodgy hand-over which resulted in disqualification.
20What was Rashid Ramzi found guilty of in November when the International Olympic Committee stripped him of the gold medal he won in the 1,500 metres at the Beijing Olympics, some 15 months previous?
(a) Being a cross between a man and a woman.
(b) Being a woman competing as a man.
(c) Being neither a man nor a woman.
(d) Taking drugs.
Who did whjat in 2009?
21Feyisa Lilesa
22Richard Donavon
23Garret Doherty
24Sergiu Ciobanu
(a) Ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.
(b) Finished the Dublin Marathon, running backwards.
(c) Won the Dublin Marathon, for Ethiopia, aged 19.
(d) Won the Irish marathon title, in Dublin,having moved here from Moldova.
25
Of the 44,177 runners who crossed the starting line of the 2009 New York City Marathon, how many managed to cross the finish line?
(a) 43,660.
(b) 23,660.
(c) 33,660.
(d) 13,660.
26Who is Leonard Chune?
a) A former member of the British Gynaecological Society, who in 1888 declared he had proof of a living hermaphrodite.
(b) The president of the South Africa Athletics Federation, who lied about not knowing Caster Semenya had been gender tested before Berlin
(c) The first coach of Caster Semenya, who frequently would refer to her as “he”.
(d) A member of the ANC Youth League, who claims it “will never accept the categorisation of Caster Semenya as a hermaphrodite, because in South Africa, and the entire world of sanity, such does not exist”.
27The European Cross Country championships in Santry will be recalled in the years to come for:
(a) Ireland failing to win a medal in any of the six races, despite home advantage.
(b) Mo Farah collapsing at the finish having run his heart out trying to beat Spain’s Alemayehu
ezabeh.
(c) Hayley Yelling winning the senior women’s title, at age 35, having come out of retirement at the start of the season.
(d) Jerry Kiernan predicting that Hayley Yelling had no chance of winning the senior women’s title, as she was one of “yesterday’s people”.
28Ireland finished where on the final placing table at the World Championships, based on the top-eight finishers across all events, thus ahead of several traditionally strong athletic nations including New Zealand, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden?
(a) 23rd.
(b) 33rd.
(c) 93rd.
(d) 103rd.
29To sustain the renewed level of interest in athletics generated by the brilliant World Championships in Berlin, the IAAF have awarded the next championships in 2011 to:
(a) Paris.
(b) New York.
(c) Sydney.
(d) Daegu.
30To improve the state of Irish athletics, and particularly Irish distance running, you would immediately:
(a) Set up a training camp outside Addis Ababa.
(b) Instigate a doping programme like the old East Germany.
(c) Get a few decent Kenyans to declare for Ireland.
Scroll down for the Answers:
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1 d
2 c
3 d
4 b
5 d
6 a
7 c
8 True
9 c
10 d
11 a
12 b
13 b
14 True
15 c
16 a
17 d
18 b
19 c
20 d
21 c
22 a
23 b
24 d
25 a
26 b
27 a
28 a
29 d
30 d
