Does Russia like athletics? Looking around the stands of the Luzhniki stadium since the start of the world championships, one can doubt it. The public is scattered there, with entire aisles remaining empty throughout the day. The atmosphere remains timid. Spectators sometimes leave the premises before the end of the competitions. With the exception, noisy and joyful, of an imposing colony of Ukrainians, dressed in blue and yellow.
In Moscow, the spectacle of this stadium is the talk of the town. Some athletes have openly complained about it, like the British Mo Farah, winner of the 10m, or the American Aries Merritt, the world record holder in the 000m hurdles. German decathlete Pascal Behrenbruch asks: “How can we award the world athletics championships to a country that does not support athletics? » Sunday evening, several thousand places remained empty during the 110m final.
Less than six months before the Winter Games in Sochi, and five years before the 2018 Football World Cup, Russia is undergoing a form of test during these World Athletics Championships. A test so far inconclusive.
Vice-president of the Russian Athletics Federation, former triple jumper Tatyana Lebedeva makes no secret of a certain embarrassment. “The stands are anything but full, that’s true,” she explained in an op-ed in the daily Sovetski Sport. In the end, the organizers will be blamed for mistakes. But let's be a little lenient. We simply don’t have the experience of putting on major athletics events. There are many things we don't know. For example, decathletes have a tradition of doing a victory lap, but we asked them to leave the track. The tradition has been broken. But believe me, this mistake will not happen again. We learn and learn with pleasure. »
According to sources close to the organizers, the current capacity of the Luzhniki stadium, normally close to 85 seats, has been reduced to 000 seats. The number of tickets on sale to the public was limited to 50.000, after deduction of invitations and places for the press. Another clarification: the prices are very affordable, the cheapest tickets having been sold for 33.000 rubles, or around 100 euros. Many tickets cost less than 2,30 rubles (1.000 euros), while the most expensive exceed 23 rubles (2.000 euros).
Questioned by the foreign press, Sergei Bubka did not avoid the problem. “We made efforts, the ticketing campaign was solid,” explained the former pole vaulter, current candidate for IOC president. But we can never be sure that the people who bought tickets will actually come to the stadium. The weather is very nice in Moscow at the moment. And when the sun shines, the Russians all go to their country houses. » A scenario fortunately unlikely to happen again next February during the Sochi Games…
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