NAs you know, Geoffrey and Barbara recently were away across the globe again to catch up with Ben in London. We left Dunedin on the day we were all under snow – which made delivering our pointer Millie into kennels VERY challenging, and also meant Barbara needed to hitch a lift with a ute load of kind young men to get up the Pitt St hill to Mercy Hospital to see my patients there! An added level of drama to have on the day you are departing town, but all was fine and good old Air NZ got us airborne! We travelled via Myanmar en route with our daughter Margie, and particularly loved our 3day trek over the hills and valleys to find our way to Inle Lake, which we enjoyed exploring before heading on to beautiful Bagan and then finally the vibrant and varied capital city Yangon, where Barbara’s cousin and his wife and young family currently live. Such a beautiful country, although we are sad to see the trauma facing the Rohingya in another corner of the country now. Even where we trekked, my cousin informed us later, was only one hour away from different armies regularly fighting, so it is certainly having some challenging political times, but hopefully the government will be able to help settle differences rapidly and this beautiful country’s peace will return.

We landed in the UK and headed to Barbara’s cousin near Oxford, and from there met up with Ben and had a gloriously relaxing 4 days in Wales on a canal boat which we were able to navigate from Llangynidr (which is not easy to say but starts with a “KL” sound!!) to Brecon and return via Crickhowell on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal. Geoffrey did a great job of being Captain, and we all took turns at the tiller, and got pretty slick at working the locks together. It is such a beautifully relaxing way to see the world, and very snug and warm when Wales turned on a tiny bit of Dunedin dampness. A great experience and a lot of fun to have time with all four of us together again after Ben being away for over 2 years in the UK. We then headed back to London and stayed in Ben’s Battersea flat which was great as our base to enjoy the World Athletic Champs from with his running flatmates Tony Payne and Callan Moody, where we would have a great debrief and review of the night’s TV coverage on our return from the six evenings we attended.

Ben has kindly written a quick review about the specific events we attended, which I will include so you can all enjoy that too:

“The 2017 London World Athletics Championships kicked off on the 4th of August, at the Olympic stadium.

A crew of ex-pat New Zealanders assembled for the first evening, Tony Payne, and his girlfriend Julia, Callan Moody, Lyndon Brown, along with Mum, Dad, Margie and myself.

The highly anticipated event that night was the 10,000m final – featuring the home favourite, Mo Farah.

It is hard to describe quite how the Brits adore Farah, but for almost the entire race, 55,000 fans were on their feet, with the noise levels steadily increasing, and when he crossed the finish-line to retain his title, the crowd erupted. The noise generated is similar to when the All Blacks score a try in a test match, except this goes on for 30mins!

The next evening, August 5th, featured the 100m semi-finals and finals. Although not in electric form, Bolt still seemed to be the favourite – particularly after what he did in Beijing, and Rio.

To witness the race that night was both incredible to be a part of Bolt’s last 100m final, but it also left a somewhat bitter feeling, due to Justin Gatlin taking the victory. The reaction from the crowd was extraordinary – after crossing the finish line, Gatlin was pelted with boos from the London crowd. I think the reaction was possibly a mixed response to what Gatlin represented, as well as disappointment that Bolt did not win in his last hurrah. It was an incredible contrast to the euphoria of Bolt winning the 100m in Beijing two years prior, which we were very lucky to see as well.

August 6th had not only Tom Walsh in the shot put, but also the women’s 100m final. Walsh’s competition was brilliant to watch, and had us on the edge of our seats, as the top five competitors all looked capable of winning if everything went well for them. To be in the stadium, and to see a New Zealander win, in such a deep, diverse sporting discipline was incredible. The night was also lit up by one of the upsets of the Champs, where Tori Bowie won the women’s 100m, and the hot favourite, Elaine Thompson of Jamaica finished a distant 5th – compounding Jamaica’s sprint misery from the night before.

The 7th of August was another night for the home crowd – with Laura Muir in the 1500m. Once again, words really can’t describe how brilliant the British crowds were for home athletes. Muir eventually finished 4th in one of the best races of the champs. She gave it absolutely everything, and 4th seemed a cruel placing for such a gutsy run.

August 8th had an incredibly tense and surprising men’s 800m result – where Pierre Ambroise-Bosse managed to hold off the firm African favourites, and the men’s 400m was a surprisingly tame affair on the track, despite the drama off it (after Isaac Makwala was barred from competing due to a virus).

Our final evening of live athletics, and the final evening of the Championships included the brilliant head to head between Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia and Helen Obiri of Kenya in the 5000m – both of whom ripped the field to pieces, before Obiri left Ayana for dead. Semenya cantered to victory in the women’s 800m, and Nick Willis didn’t quite have enough to challenge in the men’s 1500m.

It truly is hard to summarise how brilliant this experience was, and I wholeheartedly recommend attending the World Championships to any sport lover out there. It is not something just for the die-hard track and field fan, but for fans of sport and athleticism in general. The British crowds were exceptional, both in their numbers, and in their knowledge, and the London stadium was the perfect setting. By default due to the programme, you are exposed to events and disciplines you may not necessarily watch, and this increases the appreciation of these events, and their participants. See you in Doha 2019.” 

Many thanks to Blair, Nicki, Vanessa, Leah, Clare and Kate for managing all in our absence. As some of you may have noticed Vanessa is expecting a new wee family member, so it was just fantastic to have Clare return and help us out also over our holiday. Kate stepped in and helped take Geoffrey’s Pilates classes, which was great, and we have really enjoyed her assistance throughout 2017. Kate is heading off herself to enjoy the other side of the world in November, so we will all miss her Thursday Pilates classes, but will look forward to receiving updates from afar on her exciting travels. Geoffrey will be covering Thursdays from week 3 of next term.