WORLD Athletic Championships ... and there is nobody there.

just had some numpty on the Beeb defending the event

At least the petro-dollar turned up , that's the priority innit ?

Athletes need a union.  If they were organised they could all boycott these patently corrupt meetings, and also all refuse to participate in events containing drug cheats.

is this the return of Crisp in the ladies 3000 Steepo?

is there a Red Rum in there?

not today!

danno, trouble is that theyre all on drugs, thats why none really watches/ cares anymore about athletics, which is a shame, ps my little lad was a decent athlete until he had to meet immigrants claiming same age group as his under 13 eg, they were over 20

True elisjohn I've had to take the opinion that they're all at it otherwise they couldn't compete at Elite level and money is the driver so try to enjoy it for what it is,if you don't dope you won't cope as they say. Then there's the TUEs and the fake exercise induced asthma enabling a more socially accepted and often more effective way of cheating,could go on forever but it is what it is.

is this the return of Crisp in the ladies 3000 Steepo?

Wrong comparison for athletics ....should have been Filbert Bayi or Dave Bedford.

well not really as neither of the above has ever jumped a hurdle let alone a steepo

Good evening, Bap.

I wouldn't go to a place like Qatar if you paid me.

It's a tough call.  Doubt it's a financial winner for the IAAF myself, even taking into account Qatari wonga, as the sport is less commercial as a result.  Doesn't bode well for the World Cup 2022 that's for sure.

The bigger picture is that it brings major sport to not just geographically that part of the world, but also the Muslim world.  Ethiopia has been a major player in athletics and I believe it's only fair that is reflected in some way in holding these events.  It's a small step in building better realtions with the Muslim world.

Next year the Olympics are in Tokyo and haven't the Japanese been brilliant hosts of the RWC?  The cleanest nation in world sport fully deserve The Olympics and look like they'll be brilliant hosts.

100 years ago Doha used to be a small fishing town.  There will be some mess when the oil runs out or something is discovered that replaces it.  Perhaps it'll be underwater by then anyway!!

regardless of the politics and the reasons behind awarding the games to Doha, you can't have a major Athletics Championships being held in front of empty stadiums, it's not just unfair on the athletes but it damages the sport as a whole because it's a big turn off for fans watching at home, including prospective fans turning into Athletics for the first time, image counts for a lot in a crowded sports market, there's just not enough appetite for Athletics in that region, it reminds me of wta tennis on the Asian swing, many matches played in front of empty stadiums, however I disagree that the football World Cup there will not work, temperatures are much better later in the year and football is the biggest sport there, and that's just the locals, many from all around the world will converge on the city whereas they wouldn't do that for Athletics, it was quite a sad sight seeing dina asher-smith and others doing a lap of honour in an empty stadium

it was quite a sad sight seeing dina asher-smith and others doing a lap of honour in an empty stadium

agree

If anybody actually wanted to watch this I doubt it would be on the BBC

was great to see that little Ugandan girl win the 800m rather than that monstrous shemale.

The blame for this farce lies squarely at the door of Seb Coe's predecessor, the disgraced Lamine Diack, and his crooked son.  They accepted massive cash payments back in 2011 to allow Qatar to host this.  They did actually bid along with London for 2017, but the deal was done to let London go first so long as Qatar got it in 2019.  Those two pretty much live up to the very worst stereotypes of Africans in charge of huge organisations/countries.  Enriching themselves with gold plated Rolls Royces and yachts via their Swiss bank accounts, whilst caring not a jot for the duty of care they have for their charges.  Diack Sr is under trial from French prosecutors, and his son is in self-imposed exile in Sengal as he is under warrant of arrest in France too.  They are in exactly the same bracket as the likes of Jack Warner and Sepp Blatter.

But the bigger picture is a geo-political one.  Qatar, and to a lesser extent other ME states like the UAE are in the business of laundering their international reputation by buying "Western" assets to mask the medieval practices and terrorism they support at home.  FIFA world cup, Paris St-Germain, countless sporting events, massively property portfolios particularly in London...and so on.

But as long as the money keeps rolling in, blind eyes will always be turned by those in turn.  In the case of the athletics, I understand that Coe can't be critical whilst the event is ongoing, but he should distance himself from Qatar as soon as it's over, accept it was a disaster, and commit to never letting anything like that every happen again.  If he is going to insist that athletics needs to go to new countries, he should commit to taking it to Ethiopia or Kenya, where the athletes deserve it, and the locals will support it like crazy.

I doubt Coe would have turned down the Doha cash either

Slimeball Seb.