President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Sebastian Coe has hailed the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 as one of the biggest editions ever, saying not many championships were held of this scale before.
The 10-day event, dubbed as the third biggest sports show, will begin today at the Khalifa International Stadium and Corniche, which will host the women marathon this midnight.
“This Worlds will be one of the largest championships ever,” Coe told reporters at the Khalifa International Stadium on the eve of IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
“(A total of) 208 countries, plus neutral athletes and a refugee team are participating. We have at the last count a total of 1972 athletes comprising 1054 men and 918 women, nicely balanced,” the IAAF President said before suggesting he had hardly seen such a stellar line-up in the past.
“We have 37 of the 44 individual winners from London 2017, who will defend their titles. All Diamond League champions are here and will be competing. We are making a little bit of history because Allyson Felix, the most decorated athlete in the history of World Athletics Championships with 16 medals will have a chance to improve her tally,” said Coe.
“I would start by thanking people of Qatar - the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and H E Sheikh Joan bin Hamad Al Thani, who is the President of the Local Organising Committee. The LOC brought together a young, innovative and tireless team. They made Qatar and our sport very very proud,” the IAAF President added.
For the first time since 2003, the sport’s biggest event outside the Olympics will take place without sprint legend Usain Bolt. But Coe, a former Olympic and world champion middle-distance runner, was hopeful of the future and content with the influx of the new talent in athletics.
“I can’t actually remember a time in the sports when I’ve been so optimistic and excited about young talent coming. If you look our top 10 list across every discipline and in every continent, you have about a quarter of athletes around 23.
To a query regarding Christian Coleman, who escaped US Anti-Doping Agency ban earlier this month on whereabouts information, Coe backed the US sprinter to win 100m.
“It’s good for the sports if Christian Coleman wins the 100m here,” Coe said.
“I don’t think he’ll have it all his own way, but yes, of course it is.
“I want to be clear about it. There are number of issues we need to hold very firmly to,” he said. “The whereabouts (system) is a very important part of the ecosystem. All athletes understand the seriousness of it. A missed test should set off alarm bells.” he said.
Coe said athletes preparing for marathons were training comfortably, hoping the events at Corniche to go smoothly.
“We have a medical team. We have our own internal team monitoring the situation closely,” said the IAAF President.
“Our priority is the welfare of the athletes. I am actually pleased having spoke to many delegations which are here. The marathoners are training pretty comfortably on the streets. I spoke to some of these athletes as well,” said Coe.
“We will have more water than we have ever had. We have more medical teams than we ever had. We will give our best to try to minimise the affect (of heat),” said the IAAF President.
