IAAF World Athletic Championships 2017!

Following on from yesterday, I'm sharing Saturday's vlog from the actual Championship. Day 2 of 4.

Click here to watch the vlog or see below.

I have been unbelievably excited for this day for a long, long time. I bought the tickets for dad and I back in October. I've been desperate to watch the Women's Heptathlon event live and in person, since the 2012 Olympic Game s. I became obsessed with Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson. I think both of them are incredible athletes and simply put, such inspirational figures of society. Unfortunately, since buying them, Jess has retired but I was still just as excited to see Katarina and Thiam! I was defintely not disappointed!

We set off bright and early. To be quite honest, the builders had started work before 7am and the kitchen was an absolute disaster so we couldn't really eat breakfast there anyway. We headed to Euston Square and perfectly, Costa is right next door. We each got a yummy bacon sandwich and a morning smoothie. Once we'd finished, we got on the tube and two easy trains later, we made it to the venue.

I was a little worried about finding the location but it was really easy to find. There were lots of volunteers everywhere and thankfully, they'd closed off the roads so we could just walk straight down. Plus, with the massive crowd, we literally followed the leader. It was quite impressive and I got a few chills as I walked towards the Olympic Park. The Aquatics Centre is without a doubt, a beautiful piece of architecture.

By the time we got through security and queues to sitting down, we found out seats and only had to wait 10 minutes before the athletics events began. We had the best seats, specifically for the day's events!

The schedule was: M Shot Put, W 100 Metres Hurdles (Heptathlon), W Hammer Throw, M 400 Metres, W Triple Jump, W High Jump (Heptathlon), W 100 Metres, W Hammer Throw and M 800 Metres.

We were sat in front of the warm up for shot put so while I'm not a fan of the event, it was interesting to see. From the corner of our eyes, we had the perfect view on the 100m hurdles start. It was great to see. Plus, the way the stadium worked meant we had uninterrupted view of the whole straight so we could see them run the whole way down.


The actual on track running events were entertaining and it was impressive to hear and be a part of the crowd cheering everyone on. It was pretty fun to be a part of the Team GB fan club! They ran right in front of us so we could see them going around both corners and through the final straight.

Both of the hammer throws were on the opposite side but we were sat right in front of one of the big screen TVs so it was actually a great advantage. We couldn't see much of the triple jump at all but it's always been one of those events, I never really thought was worth it, and seemingly, neither did the TV companies or camera people. They got no screen time at all!

On the other hand, the high jump was incredible! We could see everything perfectly. We could see the warm up and the set up. We could see all the jumps and what was even better, the coaches for all the athletes were just a few rows in front of us! In between each jump, they would come over and have a chat with them. It was really interesting to hear and witness. The emotions on each of the girls faces, told everything.


While I was tremendously disappointed that Katarina didn't do more than one pass jump, from the get go it almost seemed like she wasn't enjoying herself or in the right state of mind. Luckily, in subsequent events, she excelled and did incredibly well!

In comparison, was Thiam and Rodriguez. After the 2016 Olympics, nothing but the best was expected from Thiam's high jump. It was quite something to see it in person and she really did make it look so easy. All but the last height was completed on the first event and she was just so relaxed. A complete natural.

But Rodriguez... She may not have completed the highest height but she was outstanding. I get goosebumps just thinking about her jumps because it was all just surreal. Not only did she outdo her personal best once but twice! The sheer joy on her face and the excitement of her whole team was incredible. You could tell she was just enjoying herself and really trying to take it all in. The celebration was as though she'd won. It was so special. I was so glad I was there to be a part of the atmosphere. Leaving, it truly felt like it had been such an honour to witness!


And it was over. Like that.

I think we got quite lucky that the scheduled events ran over by almost 2 hours otherwise it would have been a very expensive ticket. It was still expensive but well worth it!

On the way out, we were planning on getting some food from the little stalls dotted around the stadium but annoyingly, and stupidly, they all closed by the time we got out. It was a bit stupid in all honesty because they could have easily made a heck of a lot more money. In the end we spent an hour or so in the fan zone area. It was fun and they had a lot of freebies and interactive activities. It's defintely not my dad's thing and it was probably more for children than anything. Very clearly the message was to be more active!


The station was super busy and it was a while after lunch so we decided to head to Westfield Shopping Centre on the way home. I went with Sophie in a recent vlog but it was crazy busy. We quickly realised it was probably because it was summer holidays, a Saturday and 2 sessions worth of people from the IAAF. Still it was crazy! It was a 45 minute wait at multiple restaurants just to get a table and dad wasn't having any of it!

After shopping for a little bit, we got onto the underground and headed towards the flat. We ended up going to the Pizza Express just behind my flat because it's nice and relatively cheap but most importantly quick! By this time we were starving. You may notice in the vlog that we'd already eaten the dough balls before I even took a picture!


Then we headed back to the flat for the joy of an ice cold shower and another viewing of the athletics, this time on the TV!

To see the full album of pictures click here. Stay tuned for Day 3 tomorrow!

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