The IAAF will make extra provisions to avoid extreme heat at world championships in Qatar

The IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, says extra medical staff, ice baths and water will be brought in for the women’s marathon on Friday amid growing concerns about the extreme conditions at the World Athletics Championships in Qatar.

Despite the race starting at 11.59pm local time, temperatures in Doha are expected to be around 32C (90F) with humidity forecast at 80%, and there are concerns that the race could turn into a dangerous farce if the brutal weather forces many athletes to drop out.

But Lord Coe, who was re-elected president of athletics’ governing body on Wednesday , said there were no plans to cancel the women’s marathon or the men’s 50km walk on Saturday while insisting that protecting competitors was his first priority.

“We have to be mindful of the welfare of the athletes,” he said. “We have a medical team who will monitor conditions all the time. We’ve undertaken a lot of work on heat management. We recognise that the road events are those that need to be carefully monitored. We have more medical supervision, more water available. There’s no plan to cancel.”

Writing on social media, the British distance runner Helen Davies, who competed in the 2010 Commonwealth Games marathon in Delhi in 30C (86F) and 90% humidity, said it was “ludicrous, not to mention dangerous and potentially fatal” to run in such conditions. Writing of her experience, she said: “In the last 5km I was hallucinating and felt like I was cold, despite being the complete opposite, very scary. I would be very worried if I was heading into that marathon.”

Coe conceded that the race, in which Tish Jones and Charlotte Purdue will compete for Britain, would be tough but refused to be drawn on whether it would turn into a farce.

“I don’t want to speculate on that, but, of course, I want as many people to finish as possible,” he said. “Our medical teams are going to be very good. The heat is actually not the big issue, the issue is humidity, that is the real challenge. We have extra precautions, we do have extra things out on the course. We have more medical supervision, more water available but, yes, it is going to be tough.”

The IAAF also announced it had a budget deficit of $20m (£16m) but Coe insisted a new deal with the Wanda Sports Group in China made him optimistic about the future. “It’s has been a tough four years, there is no point being naive or coy about that,” he said. “I want the next four years to be the fun bit. We have to grow the sport.

“We know we have to reach beyond the beltway of athletics fans. We need to form partnerships at every level. We have to place the sport as a service provider for government agendas and get more people active and physically engaged.”

posted Thursday September 26th
by Sean Ingle