By Mutwiri Mutuota

The 12th World Championships will be remembered as a thrilling extravaganza where for nine days, an entire planet stood riveted by a sequence of great performances.

Champions fell, others were made and as a reporter for FeverPitch, the whole affair has been a blast. My top ten moments of Berlin 2009 are thus

Ten: The reputed German efficiency where order is a byword impressed. From a very efficient public transport consisting of city buses and underground trains that were seldom late to a model fusion of nature and modernity, Berlin, the greenest city in Europe is every visitors dream.

Nine: Berlin 2009 was a graveyard of defending champions. Brimin Kipruto (men steeplechase), Yekaterina Volkova (women steeplechase), Janeth Jepkosgei (women 800), Alfred Kirwa (men 800m), Yelena Isinbayeva (women Pole vault), Tyson Gay (men 100m and 200m), Bernard Lagat (men 1,500m and 5,000m), Meseret Defar (women 5,000m) and Irving Saladino (men long jump) were some high profile winners from Osaka who lost out. Made the event unpredictable.

Eight: It was a remarkable sight to witness Olympic champions, Pamela Jelimo (women 800m), Dayron Robles (110m hurdles men) and Nancy Jebet Lagat (women 1,500m) literally crash out at the semis of their events.

Seven: Polish field athlete, Anita Wlodarczyk came to Berlin among the also-runs but left with the women’s hammer world record of 77.96 and gold proudly hanging on her neck. The Ooh! That rang out the Olympiastadion still resonates.

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Six: Janeth Jepkosgei. For the second year in a row, an 18 year-old, this time South Africa’s Caster Semenya appeared from nowhere to steal the thunder from the Osaka 2007 champion. At the Beijing Olympics, Jelimo upstaged the lady who was billed as the new queen of 800m running after Osaka.

Five: Speaking of Semenya, the debate of whether she is male or female dominated international media and inadvertedly, shifted focus from her dream triumph. Expect that debate to rage on for a considerable time.

Four: The Olympiastadion and its blue tartan, a colour that is not common on athletics tracks. The 73-year-old amphitheatre of sport that was once Nazi despot, Adolf Hitler’s arena to propagate his demented Aryan supremacy theory before World War II offered a magnificent venue to bridge 200 nations. It’s splendour still radiates despite her advanced years.

Three: This man Kenenisa Bekele from Ethiopia claimed his 23rd and 24th gold medals spanning World Cross, Olympics and World Championships with victory in 5,000m and 10,000m men. Love him or hate him, his place as the ultimate distance king is undisputed and watching him exhibit his craft was special.

Two: Linet Masai, Vivian Cheruiyot, Ezekiel Kemboi and Abel Kirui who won gold for Kenya. It’s not the manner in which they did it but the panache as well. Linet and Vivian ended Ethiopia’s stranglehold on the women 5,000m and 10,000m titles, Kemboi finally won gold after three silvers and Kirui delivered on his promise to bag gold on his debut Worlds.

One: In figures, they are 9:58 and 19:19. In truth, they stand for the fastest times ever ran by a human being in 100m and 200m. Usain Bolt, the showman whose Berlin World Championships were crafted around did not disappoint. And to watch the moments he defied all reason in real time is the best gift from Berlin. It’s been a pleasure.