Olympiastadion is quiet now. The media, Volunteers, spectators, partners and guests have gone. Looking back on nine days of superb competition, what will be the legacy of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics?

First and foremost, as at all IAAF World Championships, was the competition. 2008 athletes from 202 nations contested 47 events, and in many of them achieved performances which were the year’s – and in some cases, history’s – finest. Jamaica’s Usain Bolt was the outstanding athlete of Berlin 2009, of course, establishing new World Records at 100 and 200m that smashed all previous ideas about the limits of human performance. Bolt is not simply the best sprinter of his generation. He is an anomaly, unlike anyone the sport has seen before, and his achievements in Berlin have ensured his status as a legend. But if there were no Bolt, and the other sprinters in his races had performed as they did here, we would still have seen a great time (by Tyson Gay) in the 100m and one of the finest 200m races of all time – such was the quality of this meeting’s sprint fields.

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Link to website Daegu 2011