The International Association of Athletics Federations has notified entrants in the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 confirming that the race will go ahead as planned Friday evening.

The latest weather information confirms that the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature* for tonight’s race will be at or below 30 degrees. This is within the range (28 to 30.9 degrees WBGT) that has been predicted and planned for in the past six months.

Team leaders and team doctors were briefed about the conditions for the endurance events at the Technical Meeting yesterday. As of noon today, all 69 women who were on the start list two days ago remained scheduled to start the race (the final entry list of 71 athletes included two reserves).

The IAAF and the Local Organising Committee have done everything possible to minimise the heat-related risks. These include:

– Running the endurance events at midnight

– Disseminating information to all Member Federations over the last 6 months

– Increasing the number of refreshment points along the course

– Over scaling the medical plan for these endurance events

– Recruiting leading medical experts to be part of the medical team

– Maintaining communication between IAAF medical doctors and team doctors

IAAF Medical Delegate Stephane Bermon has reassured all competing athletes that the weather would be carefully monitored throughout the day and shared with the teams before the start of the race, to ensure the event is run at an acceptable level of health risk.

Any decision to alter the starting time of the event will be made by 10.30pm, on the recommendation of the IAAF Medical Delegate, who also has the authority to withdraw any athlete before or during the event if he believes the athlete is experiencing any type of severe distress.

The IAAF Health and Science Department sent detailed advice on preparing to compete in extreme heat, in its Beat the Heat brochure, to all Member Federations in June.

*The recognised International standard for measuring heat, humidity and thermal stress conditions is Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT).  The IAAF Competition Medical Guidelines recommend that mitigation measures should be implemented in endurance events where the WBGT measure is over 28°C.

By: Alexander Anyankwaa – Doha, Qatar