The stadium in Zurich allows fans to get up close and personal with track stars.

I'm in track fan's heaven--surrounded by the cream of the world's best runners, jumpers, and throwers, past and present. My eyes are wide open and my heart is pounding at more than 100 beats a minute with excitement. We're in the lobby of the Hotel Intercontinental where the athletes stay--they're letting off steam after giving their all a few hours earlier in the best one-day track meet in the world: Switzerland's Weltklasse Zurich Meet.

An hour or so ago I saw the men's 100 meters world record equaled by 23-year old Jamaican Asafa Powell. Now he's shaking hands and patting his fellow sprinters on the back, posing for a dozen photographs with track fans along the 20-meter path through the lobby to the bar. His smile says it all; showing how pleased he is with today's sprinting.

The track-suited athletes come and go from the bar into the lobby that is now converted into a lounge with chairs and tables spread around it. They pass into the results room on the other side mixing casually with each other. Competitors a few hours ago, they now enjoy a beer together, and talk shop. We sidle into the results room to pick up a copy of the World Season lists containing the season's best times and performances. If I were younger, I'd have the athletes autograph the pages.

A lone, self-conscious Ethiopian fan stands around, wrapped in the red, green, and yellow Ethiopian flag, waiting for Kenenise Bekele to appear. He never shows. Rumors fly that he's injured, but it turns out he's just beat from his race that day, catching up on some sleep.

What makes the Weltklasse Zurich the premier one-day track and field meet in the world? For decades it's carried this reputation, and for good reason. Its location has a lot to do with it. The Swiss know how to put on a class event. They're thorough, well organized, have deep pockets for prize money, and consequently attract the creme de la creme of the world's runners, throwers, and jumpers like bees to honey. Add a knowledgeable and enthusiastic crowd to the mix in the historic Letzigrund Stadium, and you have all the ingredients for a potboiler of a meet, right from the first gun.

Earlier at the meet they parade dozens of the world's most famous athletes going back 30 to 40 years. As their names are called out, these living track and field legends, most former world record holders, Olympic champions, or world champions, trot onto the midfield and clamber up a large square tiered podium to wave to an excited throng of spectators. The crowd is pumped up, the stadium atmosphere electrically charged.

Since its inception 79 years ago in 1928, the Weltklasse Zurich has seen 24 world records, not to mention 250 Swiss records. In 1997 in what must be one of the most exciting meets in track and field history, three world distance records fell in one hour--the 3,000 meter Steeplechase, 800 meters and 5000 meters. Look at the men's times for 2006: 100 meters, 9.77; 400 meters, 44.20; 800 meters, 1:43.38; 1500 meters, 3:32.72; 3,000 meter Steeplechase, 7:56.54; 5000 meters, 12:48.25. Fast!

The Weltklasse Zurich meet gives you the opportunity to meet the elite athletes. The standing room only grandstand on the first curve is the place to be if you want to see the athletes immediately after they finish. TV reporters interview them there. It's one of the most watched events in sports history. Fifteen million people in 135 countries watched it on TV in 2006. There were 445 journalists and commentators from 21 countries reporting live.

IMPORTANT TIP: Get to the stadium at opening time--this will be a couple of hours before the meet starts, but what you are going to experience makes the wait worth it. The moment you get through the gates walk quickly into the standing room grandstand and get a place right on the front row against the wooden wall on the side of the track. Make sure it looks down onto the TV interview booth that has been set up about 20 meters past the finish line. From here you see the athletes as they cross the line (albeit from front on). Then watch the winners at arm's length in their interviews.

After the meet, walk the 800 meters or so to the Hotel Intercontinental and proceed inside as if you own the place. There, in the hotel lobby right in front of you are the athletes. The hotel is as much a part of the tradition of the Weltklasse Zurich meet as the track itself. A bronze plaque on the hotel restaurant wall lists the world records set at the meet--not a common sight in hotel restaurants.

Back at the hotel I sit amongst three Kenyan steeplechasers, all with claims to being the world's best at one time or another. I tell one I competed in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in the New Zealand Championships in 1976 and 1980, and he asks my best time. I tell him 9:27, expecting to be mocked and quickly forgotten. Not so. They're quite happy to talk track, have photographs taken, and give autographs to track fans, always smiling.

We talk training, mileage, hurdle technique, the merits of hurdling the water jump versus the traditional foot on top and leap over approach, and all manner of track trivia. They pat me on the back. I relax--we're all part of the international brotherhood of steeplechasers. These guys are delightful and modest! Earlier I'd spent a half hour talking with very shy Saif Saaeed Shaheen hovering around the periphery of the room. He's too shy to mix in with the confident self-assured Americans and other athletes.

A beautiful female sprinter pays me the ultimate compliment-- she asks what event I was in today. I explain I'm a 52-year old track fan, and she's cool with it. The athletes are not just tolerant of us "trackies," but really friendly. At intervals during the night, athletes come down to the lobby, travel bags in tow, to be collected by cabs and mini buses. They have to get to their next track meet. I have my photo taken with Craig Mottram--arms around each other's waists like buddies.

Part of the six-venue Golden League series, the Weltklasse Zurich Golden League Meet will be held on August 29 in 2008. This is only five days before the superb Athletissima Meet in Lausanne (September 2), also in Switzerland, followed three days later by the Van Damme Golden League meet in Brussels, Belgium (September 5). You can see three of the most exciting Golden League meets in eight days, and cram in some great sightseeing in these cities if you do some planning. But you must order your tickets by April at the latest. So get going now to avoid disappointment.

Below Powell is interviewd.

Zurich: Switzerland's Little Big City of Charm and Elegance
Sightseeing by foot is the recommended way to see Zurich. It's easily done because the main sights are concentrated within a thousand meters along the banks of the placid blue Limmat River. Walking is the ideal way to really get to know the winding, narrow, hilly cobble stoned streets and medieval squares, towering stone churches, and abundance of fascinating museums, including the Swiss National Museum. On a clear day it's as pretty as any other medieval European city, tucked away on a corner of the (lake) Zurichsee. Seeing the major sights in Zurich is a solid two-day task.

Zurich's self described status as owning the world's largest number of public fountains, telephones, computers and Nobel Prize winners somehow seems to encapsulate the city perfectly. It's a city of art, culture, small discretely disguised banks, and unselfconscious sophistication. It reeks of stability and prosperity. If ever there was a city that could afford to attract the world's best athletes with pots of gold, it's Zurich.

Let's start at the Bahnhof, Zurich's Neo-Renaissance Railway Station. It's one of the lifeblood arteries of Zurich, bringing in businesspeople and tourists by the thousands every day.

Across the road is the Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, the Swiss National Museum. It's a great museum to start your tour because you'll get a crash course in the country's history and culture from prehistoric to modern times. Plan on a solid two hours to browse the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, Daily Life and Costumes, 19th and 20th centuries, and Agricultural Life galleries in this museum. The long hall of weapons forms the main spine of the museum, with other galleries branching off.

Housed in a Gothic style castle of granite, limestone, and sandstone, all of which are seen on its exterior, one of the museum's prize exhibitions is the Hallwil collection. It shows ceramics and everyday objects used by this family since the Middle Ages. Another attraction grabber is the heavily decorated renaissance living room with paneled salon, stained glass windows, inlaid tabletop, antique chairs, lamps, and artwork. The remarkable 1594 Celestial Globe made by Jost Burgi, a watchmaker and astronomer, is one of five such globes in the world--a magnificent piece of artwork.

Outside, follow the Bahnhofstrasse south alongside the tramlines. Here you'll see Zurich's principal shopping street interspersed with restaurants and several major Swiss banks. Have some fun looking for all things Swiss in the windows-- Swiss watches, Swiss Army knives, and chocolate. Soon you'll come to the Lindenhof, a tree covered hill that was the site of the early Celtic settlement then later a Roman fort. The surrounding rooftops are seen from the observation platform here.

A few hundred meters on is the 13th century Augustinkirche, an early Gothic church built by the Augustinian monks. You're now in the heart of the old town, with steep winding alleys and charming old houses. Art galleries, antique shops, and boutiques are the main attractions in this upscale area.

You can't miss seeing the St Peters Kirche, renowned for its 28- foot diameter clock face on its tower. Appropriately for Switzerland, this is the largest clock face in Europe. Inside, the church resembles a basilica with galleries surrounding its Baroque decorations.

Continuing your mini-tour of churches, the 13th century Fraumunster is a Romanesque and Gothic mixture, with five red, navy blue, and orange stained glass windows by Chagall that depict biblical scenes.

I stumbled across a little treasure of a museum, the Guild House "Zur Meisen" next to the Fraumunster Church. This gem didn't seem to be in the tourist literature, and I was intrigued when I read its sign describing its contents as "The Splendor of the Burgher's Table." I was pleasantly surprised walking through the baroque design rooms crammed with ornately decorated delft tiled ovens, faience tableware, porcelain, furniture, gold edged mirrors, and other art forms.

Cross over to the east side of the river and you're on the Limmatquai, a pretty riverside boulevard. From here you'll see the Rathaus, Zurich's town hall, standing on piles driven into the Limmat River. It's a distinctive two story baroque building right over the Limmat, and dates from 1698.

From here it's only a few hundred meters up the hill to the towering Grossmunster church, with twin towers looking out all over Zurich. The church itself has an interesting history-- Charlemagne is said to have founded a church on this spot in the late 8th century. Humanist Ulrich Zwingli preached the reformation from here, his message soon spreading to other Swiss cities. Other features of this church are a large crypt, a stone Romanesque portal with bronze doors, and stained glass windows. Make sure you ascend the tower for a great view of Zurich.

Now walk a few hundred meters to the end of the Limmatquai to the picturesque blue waters at the bay on the Zurichsee. Stroll along the Utoquai for a moving panorama of the bay, or take a boat trip on the lake.

Other Zurich sights worth seeing for the art aficionado are the Fine Arts Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Museum Rietberg. And the Clock and Watch Museum Beyer boasts 500 chronological instruments, dating from 1400 BC, if you've still got time for more sightseeing.

By now you should be into your second day and exhausted. Retire to your hotel on the Niederdorf, the eastern section of Zurich's Old Town. Its pedestrian street is lined with antique shops, art galleries, small hotels, cafes, music pubs, discos, restaurants, and fast food outlets.

Hotel Tip: City Backpacker Hotel.Niederdorfstrasse 5, CH-8001, Zurich. International Phone 0041 251 9015 E-mail: sleep@city-backpacker.ch Book online: www.city-backpacker.ch