V 9 No. 40 Paul O'Shea's Report from Doha

We’ll Always Have Doha

By Paul O’Shea

As Rick wistfully tells Ilsa in the 1942 film classic, Casablanca, “We’ll always have Paris,” so will I remember the 2019 World Track and Field Championships in Doha.

Doha was my seventh World Championships. I’d been to other majors in Edmonton, Paris, Helsinki, Berlin, Moscow and Beijing. Mercifully free of the jingoism and marketing excesses of the Olympic Games, Worlds are every bit as rewarding as their four-year elders.

Doha Worlds: the world’s third largest sporting event, with more than 200 countries sending athletes.  Impressive results at Khalifa International Stadium: one world record, 86 national records, 43 countries won medals, with the United States taking 29.  Jamaica (12) and Kenya (11) were second and third.

 

Doha City, Qatar: scorching, humid, polluted. Skyscrapers springing from the desert, sixty-nine hundred air miles from my hometown airport, Washington Dulles.

Abutting the Persian Gulf, Qatar is small, about the size of Connecticut. It sits on the world’s largest natural gas reserves. The country is also one of the world’s most contaminated, and on some evenings there was a haze in the stadium.  The country readies for the 2022 World Cup when the average high temperature in December is just 76 degrees compared with September’s 102.

Most of Qatar is populated by expats (over two million) with just 300,000 nationals. Many sleek, new high-rise buildings. At night, there’s a light show with skyscrapers outlined and lit up like giant Christmas trees. Off in the distance sits Doha Bay.

The weather was stifling, from the moment I stepped out of Hamad International Airport and into the city air.  Three digits Fahrenheit, with what one might wryly call a wind-chill of 113 degrees. Fortunately, the indoor cooling system at the International Stadium was effective. Some nights a sweater was useful.

Climate change skeptics might have second thoughts if they breathed in and out in Doha.  It’s the world’s fourth most toxic environment.  Three years ago the World Health Organization said air pollution in Qatar “vastly exceeds safe limits and is damaging the health of the population.” The Qatar Times, the country’s English daily newspaper, pushed back against the pollution charge. “The Ministry of Municipality and Environment has dismissed as baseless a report that suggested high levels of carbon emissions in Qatar.  The ministry said the report did not properly reflect the reality of emissions at the global level in Qatar.” 

Many riyals, Euros and dollars probably exchanged ownership in the transaction that brought the Worlds to the Middle East.  No one should be shocked, shocked that pay to play had gone on here.

Opening day the women’s marathon started at 11:59 p.m. with the temperature at 90 degrees and 73 per cent humidity.  Only 40 of the 68 starters finished, with the winning time 2:32:43. Bronze medalist Helalia Johannes from Namibia said afterwards, “I can’t say I enjoyed it.”

One memorable performer was the first American, Roberta Groner, 41 years old, with three kids, and a full time job as a nursing administrator in New Jersey. She ran 2:38:44 in sixth place. Ten days later the weather was more cooperative for the men (the temperature was 84 at the gun with 51 per cent humidity), and 2:10:40 was the winning time. Only 18 of 73 starters failed to finish, still a high number for an elite field.

The Worlds’ marathon apparently was just a tempo run for Roberta Groner.  About a month later she ran the New York City Marathon in arguably perfect conditions.  Her 2:30:13 was 13^th best among the women and 74^th among all finishers.

 

The middle- and distance-running events largely went according to form.  Favorite Donavan Brazier led early and won with an American record, taking down Johnny Gray’s ancient (1985) 1:42.60 by a tenth.  In the men’s 1500 Timothy Cheruiyot quickly escaped challengers with 55.01 and 1:51.74 splits.  Matthew Centrowitz ran about to form. He was eighth in 3:32.81.

Equal-opportunity destroyer Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands strolled in the back of the twenty-two starters in the early laps of the women’s 10,000, then went through the field and cruised to a thirteen-second win in 30:17.62.  A week later she took charge early in the 1500. Her 3:51.95 was the sixth fastest in history.  Someday, could there be a Zatopek Triple in her kit?

 

The LetsRun crew called the men’s steeple the greatest ever.  Our seats were a meter or two off the finish line, and looking down on the finishers, I thought Conseslus Kipruto had lost to Ethiopia’s Lemecha Girma, but the Kenyan won by one one-hundredth of a second in 8:01.35. In the men’s 10,000 Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and Ethiopia’s Yomif Keleja fought an epic, side-by-side battle, with Cheptegei winning in 26:48.36.

 

One of the most anticipated events was the men’s high jump and the appearance of Qatar icon Mutaz Barshim. Slim as a whippet, returning from foot surgery, he made the first four heights, missed twice at 7-7 3/4, then cleared that on his third try. To defend his title Barshim soared 7-9¾, a height he hadn’t made in four years.

U.S. relay teams performed admirably, winning four of the five baton events, including a mixed-sex four by four. Despite a history of botched handoffs and other mishaps, the men’s 400-meter relay team treasured the stick as if it were letters of transit that got Ilsa out on the night plane.

I signed on for this Track and Field News Tour with many of the usual suspects, renewing and forging new relationships with the pursuers of international achievement. Their backstories enriched the memories from the oval: this is the track meet with benefits.

T&FN Publisher and Tour Leader Janet Vitu waged vocal hand-to-hand combat with Qatar security as she pressed to get our bus closer than a 20K walk to the stadium. She prevailed.

Roger Heinle is an Iowa corn and soybean farmer whose father spent eight consecutive years where duty and economic necessity had him milk the cows twice a day, every day for eight years.

Long-time Cerritos College coach Gary Gaudet is a world-traveller with an impressive collection of passports.  In addition to his extensive background in the sport that earned him California Community College Coaches Hall of Fame honors, he’s toured 116 countries.  At Doha he oversaw the Tour’s Prediction contests, won by Tim Bianchi, Dan McGregor and Krish Kartha.

With us was Paul Pearson who never stopped running after Texas Western (I wrote earlier for Once Upon a Time in the Vest about his career

Navigating the Currents of Time - Paul Pearson. (link).  Now in his late sixties, Paul’s an impressive age group runner and recently placed second in the National Senior Games 1,500. Going out for his morning workout in Doha he was brought to his knees by the atmosphere after running just twenty minutes.

Tour colleagues benefited from the high-performing team of Hollobaugh and Hollobaugh. Jeff’s daytime job is writing for Track and Field News, online and in print. In Doha his nighttime assignment was producing the daily TAFNOT TIMES, two pages of inside baseball delivered to the doorstep each morning. His book, The Miler is a rewarding read for those helping runners devise strategies to win middle distance races.

Also in our group was TrackandFieldHunter.com, writing crisply, cogently for his blog and others.  I profiled David earlier for Once Upon a Time in the Vest.    (link) 

 David Hunter, Writing for the Future, Today

Tucked into a corner of the pedestrian mall and adjacent to our hotel, the IAAF presented its Heritage World Athletics Championships Exhibition.  Case after case of memorabilia on loan from legendary performers and museums. Zatopek’s shirt and shoes.  A Bannister signed program. Jesse Owens’ Ohio singlet.  Lasse Viren’s Onitsuka Tigers. On a television screen a loop of international cross country race videos.

At Khalifa International Stadium, aside from the inescapable heat there were minor management blunders. The hosts chose to site the medal ceremony up, up and away, high in the venue’s end zone.  Medal winners were literally in reduced circumstances.

Stadium vendors adopted a here’s looking at you kid, nonchalance when selling water. Hollis Lenderking recorded six different prices in as many days.  He’s the USATF Pacific Association sports administrator whose athletic history includes some fifty ultra marathons, and extensive beverage experience.

Media reviews of the 17^th Worlds were mixed. Writing in The New York Times, Tariq Panja focused on the weak attendance that had to be augmented by busing in loads of migrant workers to cut embarrassment for the Qataris.  But the heat drew most of his criticism. What the writer failed to acknowledge in his story were the performances.  

LetsRun said, “The track and field display that was put on last week in Doha at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships were unbelievable.  Five years ago, when Worlds were awarded to Doha many wondered how Doha’s hot weather and the late date of the championship would impact the performances and some were making dire predictions, particularly for the long distance events.  In actuality, nearly everything about the Worlds—minus the crowds and the absurd heat for the women’s marathon—ended up being amazing.”

Seb Coe, unanimously reelected IAAF President at the Worlds, was effusive in his evaluation.  “The world’s athletes have put on the best show in the history of the IAAF World Athletics Championships, according to the competition performance rankings which are used as an objective measure of the quality of international competition.”

 

ed. In 2015 we first became aware of Joe Kovacs and reported in the following  (link)

Joe Kovacs, An Emerging Force in the Shot Put

Based on IAAF scoring tables the men’s outstanding feat was the 75 foot two inch throw of shot put titlist Joe Kovacs.  The women’s premier achievement was the 23 foot 11 ½ inch long jump by Germany’s Malaika Mihambo.  Curiously, the IAAF failed to recognize in its list of the top five meet performances the world record 400-meter hurdle victory of Dalilah Muhammad.  The mark was worth a $100,000 bonus.

 

So, as time goes by, the 2021Worlds will be contested at the newly reconstructed Hayward Field. The House That Knight built will open in 2020 with the Prefontaine Classic.

The Worlds: still the same old story, a fight for love and glory.

----------Play it again, Sam

Paul O’Shea is a lifelong participant in the track and field world.  After retirement from a career in corporate communications he coached a high school girls’ cross country team and was a long-time contributor to Cross Country Journal. He writes for Once Upon a Time in the Vest from Fairfax, Virginia. He can be reached at Poshea17@aol.com.

Comments:    Two comments on Paul O'Shea's excellent article,

1. Ajee Wilson didn't fare so well in 800m
2. All dairy farmers milk their cows twice/day, every day, year round.   Bruce Kritzler

ed. We have noted Ajee's 3rd place finish in the article.   Thank you.


from Roy Mason:    Good report.  I knew nothing about Qatar.  Now I know everything except why there is no "u" in Qatar.  Just seems wrong somehow.


Vasco da Gama when he first sailed past did not have a lot of paper on which to take  notes in his log book and abbreviated the Old Portugese spelling of 'equator'  which was  'equatar'.  Therefore he dropped the 'e' and 'u' for the sake of brevity.  George

Found it! Great take on the event. As for Expats living in Qatar it was a mess for them as traffic which is already bad was made worse with diversions and heavier traffic. Other than the traffic, my colleagues said it barely made a blip on their radar. Some did attend and sent me a video of their rep from Spain in the controversial men's 110m hurdles. Because it was live my colleague and I argued on whether they will give the Spaniard (Orlando  Ortega) the bronze. My colleague said they wouldn't but it was clear the Jamaican went out of lane and I told him....they will. Whew...they did. So he was happy his compatriot won a medal. The lighting in the stadium, especially how they announced the athletes in the lanes was amazing. I don't know if Kuwait has the same air etc but I guess one gets used to it. Along with the heat. Ask the athletes training in Arizona then competing in Florida. Different climates. Didn't Tokyo or Mexico's high humidity also have an impact on the marathon and other races? I mean....should we guarantee perfect weather conditions for such events or should the event test the athlete in whatever adversity/condition they may have to compete in? 

Cheers/  Susan A. ( Kuwait)