(ATR) IAAF President Sebastian Coe is defending the decision to take the 2019 World Athletics Championships to Qatar.
The event has been heavily criticized for a lack of people in the stands and the extreme heat faced by competitors in the road events held outside of the air-conditioned Khalifa International Stadium.
"Can I just be a bit blunt about this: The athletes talking about externalities are probably not the ones who are going to be walking home with medals from here," the IAAF president said Wednesday, as quoted by the Associated Press.
"I have much, much bigger commitments and visions for our sport than to turn and head for home because we take an event into an area that poses problems."
Qatar’s climate, even at this time of year, meant the road races were forced to begin around midnight local time and were still run with temperatures around 33 degrees Celsius (92 degrees Fahrenheit) and humidity above 70 percent. Only 40 of the 68 competitors who began the women's marathon were able to finish.
"It was a challenging climate," Coe admitted to reporters, adding "but the reality of it is we had a medical facility which I don't think I've ever seen in any championship — Olympics or world championships. I'd be surprised if you had the same facility in Tokyo. I hope they do, but this is something really special."
Biles Chases Record in Stuttgart
Simone Biles’ quest for the record books will headline the 49th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that begin Friday in Stuttgart, Germany.
The 20-time world medalist, the 22-year-old Biles needs four more to break the current record of 23 won by Vitaly Scherbo of Belarus from 1991-1996. She already owns more world gold medals than any other gymnast with 14.
Biles won six medals at the 2018 World Championships in Doha.
More than 540 gymnasts from a record 92 countries are expected to compete for the 14 sets of medals at stake - eight for the men and six for the women.
The top nine teams in each discipline, excluding the three who qualified in 2018, will lock up a place at Tokyo 2020.
Individuals from countries that do not qualify teams to Tokyo have their chance to earn individual berths in Stuttgart. The top 12 male and top 20 female gymnasts in the All-around will qualify as individuals to Tokyo, with a maximum of one gymnast per nation in each discipline.
Additionally, any athlete from a country without a qualified full team (with a maximum of three gymnasts per country for all apparatus) who wins a medal in the apparatus finals will also qualify to the Olympics.
The event at the 7,500-seat Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle runs through Oct. 13.
Taekwondo Tries Out New Uniforms
Taekwondo athletes could be wearing new, high-tech uniforms for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
World Taekwondo tried out the new suits, which allow for the attachment of arm and shin guards, at the Ready Steady Tokyo Taekwondo test event recently. The new suits were worn by competitors in the men’s -58kg and women’s -49kg categories.
"We trialled the new taekwondo uniforms for fight competition, which maintain our tradition of white taekwondo uniform, but also use new technologies to make them better for athletes and fans," said World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue.
An Extraordinary Council meeting of World Taekwondo in December in Moscow will decide if the new suits will be used at the Summer Games.
The test event also proved successful for the Makuhari Messe Hall, the venue for the competition for Tokyo 2020. The convention complex will also host fencing and wrestling next summer.
AIBA Women's Championships Begin
The 11th AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships begins on Thursday in Ulan-Ude, Russia.
A total of 224 boxers from 57 countries are entered in 10 weight classes for the event, which runs through October 13.
The IOC’s suspension of AIBA from organizing the Olympic tournament, including the qualification stage, means that winning a medal no longer means direct qualification to one of the five weight classes for Tokyo 2020.
The IOC boxing taskforce put in charge of the Tokyo tournament has set up five Olympic qualification events to be held between February and May of next year.
The majority of the quota places will be filled by tournaments held for four continents: Africa, Americas, Asia/Oceania and Europe.
A fifth event in Paris in May will be limited to those NOCs that did not qualify an athlete in the continental events in a specific weight category.
The Russian Boxing Federation, as it did for the men’s world championships last month, is both hosting and funding the women’s event since the financially-strapped AIBA does not have the money to do so.
Written by Gerard Farek
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