THE CURTAIN FALLS

THE 2016 SEASON SAW AN AMAZING MIX OF UPS AND DOWNS, SAYS TIM HUTCHINGS

PICTURES: MARK SHEARMAN

THE SUMMER of 2016 – how was yours? For our sport it was a real mixed bag with incredible athletics and world records galore (well, five in Olympic events: men’s 400m and women’s 10,000m, steeplechase, 100m hurdles and hammer), surrounding a Rio Games that left me enthralled but slightly underwhelmed and any celebration was always tempered by the disgrace of the exposure of Russia’s state-sponsored criminality on doping.

The positives (that pun again): brilliant Bolt (again!), Van Niekerk’s dazzling 43.03, Mo doing his stuff with consummate ease and Ayana’s gallop to glory over 10,000m – those are just some of the memories I’ve returned with. But alongside this was the sight of the worst traffic I’ve seen anywhere and accompanying logistics for many, that coloured their Rio experience beyond redemption.

The isolation of the athletics stadium was awful, making our sport feel almost side lined in the bigger Rio picture; the constant fear of crime, whether justified or not, that a good wristwatch should not be worn nor credit cards taken outside the hotel; along with the knowledge, almost inducing guilt, that Rio and Brazil could not afford the Games with their economy in freefall, all conspired to take the edge off each day. As we know from attendance numbers, the folk of Rio voted with their feet. Or didn’t, so to speak.