Doha, May 6, 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-President & Director General Dahlan Al-Hamad told a press conference yesterday.
“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.
