Revamped, exciting schedule for 2019 Doha Worlds
DOHA, May 5, 2018 - Being the first ever hosts of the IAAF World Championships in the Middle East wasn't always going to be enough. Innovation, legacy have often been taken into consideration by organisers in Qatar, and so next year's IAAF World Championships, which will be hosted at the iconic Khalifa International Stadium between September 28 and October 6, will see many firsts, including midnight marathon, 4x400m mixed relay and scrapping of morning sessions, among others.
The evening session will also be split into two, with an hour-long interval allowing local communities to get involved in competition in front of actual athletics fans but also for entertainment.
“It is our ambition to organise an innovative, creative and exciting event that inspires and engages new fans, new athletes and new audiences and maximises the full potential of our region's first-ever IAAF World Championships," IAAF vice-president and Doha 2019 Local Organising Committee vice-chairman Dahlan al-Hamad told a press conference on Friday.
“The new competition schedule, night marathon format, it will enable us to showcase the sport like never seen before, capturing the attention of young people in Qatar and around the world, and connecting them to the contagious excitement of athletics."
Talking about the revamped format, International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Sebastian Coe said, “The first 4x400m mixed relay will have its global debut ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the first midnight marathon, the evening sessions with semi-finals and finals only and dedicated slots in the timetable for the final stages of field events allowing full focus on the decisive and most thrilling moments and attempts. We are looking forward to seeing how these firsts and the engagement format will come together next year to deliver a World Championships that will look and feel different.
“It is exciting to see the way the World Championships are being developed and adapted to the host country and region mixing world class competition with an ambitious entertainment and engagement plan that we hope will delight athletes, spectators and viewers around the world."
The decathlon and heptathlon will also be run concurrently — a first for the world championships — with their respective event-ending 1500m and 800m finals both starting after midnight.
“The adaptations here are in line with many of the innovations we have talked about in the last few years, including the evening sessions that focus more on semis and finals, the ability to showcase field events and get them into the body of television production," Coe told Gulf Times.
“We don't always showcase to best effect the cities we are in, so having a midnight marathon under floodlights on the Corniche with breath-taking view that is behind that, across the bay, is a great way of showcasing a city. These are all very good innovations. Yes, of course the midnight marathon, when you have athlete welfare at heart, is going to be kinder conditions for those athletes and that's good for them too."
An increased focus on field events was something the likes of high jump world champion Mutaz Barshim, javelin Olympic champion Thomas Rohler and pole vault Olympic, world and Diamond League champion Katerina Stefanidi, spoke of the day before during the pre-event press conference, which was organised at Doha's City Centre Mall.
“Few years ago the focus was more on track, especially with Usain Bolt in action. But I am glad to have been part of this revolution, I would say, for the field events," Barshim had said on Thursday.
“First, these three athletes are extraordinary. So when you have that status, that's a good place for field events to be in. But I do think that there are things we can do to help field events get a better share of television production, the time they need to be in the limelight, and that's what we have achieved here, and that's very important. You know actually it is quite easy for a field event, in a dramatic moment, to get lost because there is so much else happening in the stadium. So to be able to showcase big decisive moments in those particular attempts in those competitions is a great opportunity," Coe said on Friday.
Qatar already has experience hosting a night MotoGP race, a first in the motorcycling championship's history when Losail International Circuit hosted the first edition under floodlights in 2008.
Doha 2019 is expected to be pivotal in the continued growth of women's athletics across the region. Commenting on the opportunity, Sheikha Asma al-Thani, Marketing and Communications Director of Doha 2019, said, “It is our ambition that the World Championships in Doha will help to inspire more young girls from across the region to see that anything is possible and that they can achieve their dreams. We want to break down barriers and change perceptions of Arab women in sport, and inspire and empower more and more girls to participate in sport at any level."
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