Oh the joy of travelling! After over 20 years covering sport all over the world I still have a love hate relationship with travelling and there’s no doubt my recent trip to Poland and Germany was certainly an adventure! Leaving Cardiff with only the early birds to keep me Company I headed to Heathrow. checked in and then got delayed. Arrived in Warsaw four hours late and then Poland’s answer to Lewis Hamilton drove me and my esteemed colleague John Anderson to Bydgoszcz. An unforgettable journey as the guy quite literally shaved 25 minutes off our expected time of arrival. But it was worth it as the IAAF World Under 20 Championships were fantastic. I really enjoy covering athletics at this level as I feel very privileged seeing the stars of the future and wow did we witness some truly memorable performances! It’s always an unforgettable experience for any athlete to compete on home soil in front of a home crowd so to see Konrad Bukowiecki claiming gold and a World U20 record to boot in the shot put on the opening day was most definitely a moment to remember!
Later in the week it was time to leave my IAAF Radio colleagues to fly to Frankfurt to head to the iconic Nurburgring to cover the latest round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. There is something very special about this race circuit and it’s always a highlight in the calendar. And what a race it proved to be – 6 hours of non-stop action packed excitement but at the chequered flag it was car #1 of Porsche’s Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley who took the win – great to see the guys back to winning ways!
A quick trip to Stuttgart the next morning before getting in the car and driving back home. A typical week at LBP – a 3041.2 mile journey and a fantastic week of world class sport!
By Sam Lloyd