EDMONTON A WORLD AWAY

By Andy Schooler, Sportinglife.com, Edmonton

I’m not a journalist who gets a kick out of running down by home country, in this case Britain.

But on arrival here, I just had to be a little concerned.

From the moment I stepped off the plane it was clear to see the organisation of these 8th World Athletics Championships was top notch.

Fans and athletes alike were still arriving in droves and being treated much like the royalty which had touched down earlier in the day.

The ultra-friendly volunteers – thousands of whom have given up their free time to work, unpaid, in welcoming visitors – ensured you were never left alone to negotiate the sometimes tricky airport arrival system.

Along with officials and athletes, I was then whisked off by bus to pick up my pass etc at the nearby accreditation centre and from there ferried into the city to my hotel on pleasantly quiet roads which proved just how far I had travelled in a day.

And during that drive in one of numerous people carriers which are being used as free taxis from the airport it struck me.

London is supposed to staging the 2005 championships. That’s just four years away – and we haven’t even got a stadium to hold it in.

Even if the Picketts Lock project does get the go-ahead, I pity those arriving at our over-crowded airports such as Heathrow.

Can you imagine athletes and officials arriving from far flung places across the globe only for their first impression of Britain to be the traffic jam on the M4 Heathrow service road or the North Circular?

I hope that doesn’t happen but organisers have much to think about before 2005.

Judging by my initial impressions they could learn a lot from the friendly Canadians.