{UAH} Dire in Doha: world championships ‘catastrophe’ leaves athletics reeling
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USA sprinter Allyson Felix Yesterday Broke Usain Bolt's Record For Most Golds, And At The Same Time Became The Greatest Female Athlete Of All Time. But Her Remarkable Achievement Yesterday In Doha Was Watched By An Almost Empty Stadium Of Less Than 150 Spectators. The IAAF, the owners of the WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS must be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for awarding this key event to a country like Qatar where there is very little interest in sports, and the temperatures are too HOT for outdoor competition. The IAAF just wanted oil dollars and not athletics excellence.. The same Qatar is Also Hosting The Next Fifa World Cup, Corruptly Awarded To Them By Disgraced Former Fifa President Sep Blatter. The Incompetence of The IAAF Should Not Detract From Felix's Achievement Because Millions Of People Watched Her Remarkable Run On TV..
Dire in Doha: world championships 'catastrophe' leaves athletics reeling
Empty seats and ghostly silence have been the sad feature of these world championships – it is a PR disaster for the sport
Moments after the greatest 10.83 seconds of her life, the British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith grabbed a union flag from her mother, Julie, and began a lap of honour to celebrate her world championship 100m silver medal. But as she trotted round the 40,000-seat Khalifa stadium in Doha on Sunday night she was greeted by banks of empty seats and a ghostly silence.
Observers reckoned there were no more than 1,000 people still in attendance, and many of them were journalists tapping away to deadline. Asher-Smith's mother later tweeted she had seen more spectators at England Athletics' age-group championships in Bedford.
Asher-Smith's teammate Beth Dobbin was even more blunt. "I watched Dina's victory lap and that was a bit heartbreaking because what she did was insane, and there was no one there," she said. "I feel like she was robbed of that moment."
The organisers have since blamed the start of the working week and an event schedule designed for European TV audiences. But that cannot hide a simple fact. These world athletics championships have been a PR disaster for athletics, the sport's president Sebastian Coe, and for Qatar, a country which has spent the past decade buying up rights to host major events, including the 2022 football World Cup.
Even Denise Lewis, the 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion who is not known for controversial views, has stuck the boot in, telling the BBC: "Our governing body has let our athletes down massively." Meanwhile Eurosport, which holds Olympic TV rights across Europe, also mocked the lack of crowd for the women's sprint final. "The Doha crowd roars with approval," it tweeted with a gif of tumbleweed.
It is all a far cry from the promises made by Qatar in its first bid for these championships in 2011. "No empty seats," the prospectus said, adding that "the atmosphere surrounding the world championships will be fantastic."
That was a pledge that always looked to be spurious. But at least it was made several years ago. Coe, who was on the evaluation commission that inspected Doha's bid for the 2019 championships and is reported to have later voted for it, said he hoped it would be "spectacular" just a few days ago.
Instead there have been large gaps in the stands, despite the capacity being reduced from 40,000 to 21,000 and organisers busing large numbers of migrant workers in with free tickets.
On Monday organisers claimed that attendances had been "solid" for the first two days but conceded "numbers were down on our expectations on day three with the start of the working week in Qatar". However they did not say how many tickets had been paid for over the 10 days of competition.
Meanwhile Jon Ridgeon, the CEO of athletics' governing body, the IAAF, claimed the diplomatic blockade of Qatar by its neighbours, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for having an impact on ticket sales.
"When you judge a championship, clearly the size of audience and the atmosphere created is one elements, but the athletics has been stunning," he told the BBC. "And you must remember, when this event was awarded six or seven years ago, it was always positioned as a celebration of athletics in the Middle East. Clearly geopolitics has shifted since. There's a blockade now on this country from the surrounding countries."
This, though, was a disaster foretold. After Doha was controversially awarded the championships – having offered £23.5m towards extra sponsorship and a promise to build 10 new tracks around the world minutes before the vote in 2014 when it defeated Eugene and Barcelona – the former IAAF board member Helmut Digel called it "incomprehensible".
However José María Odriozola, a Spanish IAAF executive well-versed in the lingua franca of sports politics, cut to the heart of the matter. "All Doha have is money," he said.
For many sports federations that is enough, whatever the athletes may think. Yet with every passing hour, more of them are voicing discontent. The French decathlete Kevin Mayer, the world record holder, has called the championships a "catastrophe". Other athletes have claimed that they are being treated as "guinea pigs" by a governing body that has forced marathon runners and race walkers to compete in 31C heat and high humidity, which has led to some being carried off the course in wheelchairs.
As Belarus's Volha Mazuronak, who finished fifth in the women's marathon in the early hours of Saturday morning, put it: "I thought I wouldn't finish. It's disrespect towards the athletes. A bunch of high-ranked officials gathered and decided that it would take the world championships here but they are sitting in the cool and they are probably sleeping right now."
No one doubts that track and field has lost most of the momentum gained from the London 2017 world championships, which were watched by 750,000 people in the flesh and millions more on television. On Sunday evening Adam Gemili admitted it had been a "weird" event, adding: "It makes the British championships look quite good." A colleague, the race walker Tom Bosworth, was even more cutting: "The only people carrying this sport are the athletes," he said. "The IAAF truly should be ashamed."
However Coe continues to maintain that track and field must venture into new territories to help spread the word. Tell that to the 1,972 athletes from 208 countries here in Doha. For many this will be the pinnacle of their careers. How sad, then, that it has turned into a nadir for their sport.
'I'm 32, I'm a mum and here I am breaking barriers,' says Fraser-Pryce after 100m win – videoDisclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
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