IAAF World Junior Championships
Aug 15-20, 2006 at Beijing, China
DyeStat on-site coverage
with Doug Speck, Jim Spier, Mike Kennedy and Mike Byrnes

Mike Byrnes
Third Day Musings

by Mike Byrnes

AN UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE
What a day!!!!  We rented a van and went to the GREAT WALL!  Everyone has heard of this wonder, but until you see it there’s absolutely no way you can appreciate it.  We’ve been gone from there about 6 hours and I’m still in awe.  When one thinks of a “wall,” they usually envision a straight brick thing.  This wall, and I doubt if my journalistic attempts to describe it will be adequate, would stretch almost the entire width of the United States.  The section we saw was utterly stupendous.  The terrain was mountainous – NOT hilly, mountainous.  The wall was endless.  No matter how steep, it went on.  Interspersed, and fairly close together, are guardhouses used to handle the contingent of soldiers stationed there.  In addition, cisterns were built to provide a plentiful water supply. 

Built in 1387, the cost in human life was as stupendous as the wall itself.  Close to 4000 per mile!  There’s another great engineering accomplishment in this fabled land, the Great Canal.  Over 1000 miles long and originally lined with magnificent homes, part of it are still in use today.  The cost for that in human life?  2600!  None, probably, was given a proper burial.  Most were either thrown off the wall into the valleys below or become part of the wall itself.  The Chinese ancients didn’t have too much concern over human life.  But boy!  Could they build stuff!!

PRESSURE…
Perhaps no event produces more pressure than the High Jump.  Why?  The competitors are physically close togetherm, but the order of jump is all-important.  The athlete who jumps first can put incredible pressure on the others if he is successful.  Those following MUST clear the bar just to stay even.  Tonight, we saw just such a situation.  The kid from Israel, NIKI PALLI, was jumping first.  He was great, clearing every height on his first attempt.  Jumping after him was local hero, HAIQIANG HUANG.  He knew that a miss could be fatal.  He cleared each height on HIS first attempt.  The bar goes to 2.32 (7-07.25).  The young Israeli is leading on misses.  Huang MUST clear to have a chance to either go on or win outright...

Palli misses, Huang misses.  Palli misses, Huang misses.  Each time Huang could have won on his attempt.  He didn’t.  Palli sets up; he knows if he clears, the pressure on Huang will be immense.  He misses.  Huang knows this is the most important jump of his young life.  A clearance and he’s the World Junior Champion, a miss…don’t even think about it.  Every Chinese in attendance holds their breath.  Huang starts his approach, the roar starts, he never falters, HUANG CLEARS!  I wish you could have been here.

BREAKFAST
Every guidebook I’ve ever read tells the reader to avoid roadside eateries and sidewalk vendors for obvious reasons.  En route to the Great Wall we wanted breakfast.  Our driver pulled over across the street from what looked to be some sort of a shopping center.  We crossed and started to veer right to the shops…wrong.  He led us to copse of trees.  There were 20-30 tables set up, each filled with people eating.  In front were the “chefs.”

Open propane grills, boiling oil, tureens of soup and other things.  There were five of us “dining.”  We selected meat-filled dumplings, fried bread and soup.  Unbelievably, EVERYTHING TASTED GREAT!  We were dining on the most authentic Chinese food you can get.  Of course, we were objects of great curiosity.  Everyone was staring but we ignored them and literally “pigged out.”  The bill for five to eat a full breakfast?  $3.50!!  It doesn‘t get any better.  PS – We all had upset stomachs later in the day.

THE RIDE
As aforementioned, we took a cable car to the start of our Great Wall trek.  The cars seated two and they didn’t stop for you to get on.  Thus began our “ride.”  It lasted over 20 minutes and when you looked down you realized you were high, very high up.  The experience impressed upon us the immense difficulty of building the Wall.  Just to get the millions upon millions of bricks necessary up to the level of the wall had to be far more difficult than building the Pyramids.  When we got to the top, we leaped from the moving car, happy to emerge unscathed…almost.  The klutz in the group, yours truly, got a badly scraped knee.

THE GOOD SAMARITAN
When we started walking the trail to get to the wall, an elderly woman gripped my arm.  I assumed she needed some help and gripped her hand tightly.  All the way up, a fifteen-minute trek over rough terrain and very steep steps, I “helped” her.  Suddenly it dawned upon me: She was the “helper” and I was the “helpee.”  After that embarrassment, imagine me, one of the world’s great natural athletes, needing to be helped by an old lady.  From that point on I assiduously avoided her ministrations. 

We started down on the cable cars.  When we got to the bottom, she was waiting!  She had walked down faster than we floated along in our cars!  Darn tough, these Chinese.

.

World Junior Championships index page