Kenyan top favorite Ruth Chepngetich had reason to celebrate when she won the first gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in the night. Of 68 starters, however, only 40 came to the finish. Reason: the extreme heat and high humidity that caused some runners to collapse. After the competition, there was clear criticism.
After the race, silver medal winner Rose Chelimo from Bahrain said, "It was very hot and at some point it occurred to me to stop, but I kept running and praying that I could finish the race."
Clearer was Mayada Al Sayad, who reached the finish after 3:10:30 hours as penultimate. "It was terrible," said the 26-year-old long-distance runner from 1. VfL Fortuna Marzahn, who starts for Palestine, the ARD: "My heart was racing, I've never felt so bad."
The marathon runners could not benefit from the moderate temperatures of around 25 degrees in the air-conditioned stadium in Doha. They had to end their race, which ended at 2:32 pm local time, at over 32 degrees and around 73 percent humidity.
"Scary, intimidating, discouraging"
"It was really scary, intimidating and daunting," said Canada's Lyndsay Tessier, who finished ninth, "I'm just very thankful that I finished on my feet." It was "alarming" that so many runners had to give up. Bronze medalist Helalia Johannes from Namibia said: "I can not say I enjoyed the race."
Ali Haider / EPA-EFE / REX
Help for an exhausted participant of the marathon
The Italian Sara Dossena, EM sixth of Berlin 2018, had to give up after a good quarter of the distance exhausted and was driven in a wheelchair from the track. According to ARD and Deutschlandfunk cameramen were harassed and prevented from filming the collapsing athletes. Hardly any fans would have pursued the finish under floodlights.
Chepngetich's victory time was also the slowest in World Cup history with 2:32:43 hours. Thus none of the athletes has run the valid Olympic standard for Tokyo of 2:29:30 hours. However, the World Athletics Federation awards IAAF so-called placement places at a World Cup, a maximum of the top ten and a maximum of three places per nation.
Due to the heat in Qatar with daytime temperatures over 40 degrees, the road competitions were postponed into the night. The walkers and goers will be sent on Saturday over 50 km only at 23.30 clock local time (22:30 CEST) on the trip, in the finish they will be between 3.15 and 4.00 clock in the morning. The men's marathon will take place during the night from 5 to 6 October.