Doha Worlds will be unique: Coe

The IAAF World Championships in Qatar will be a ‘unique event’ and hopefully will inspire many young people to become athletes around the world, Sebastian Coe, the head of the sports governing body, said yesterday.

The former middle-distance runner, who won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, said that championship will motivate many youngsters around the world and Qatar.

“The Championships will be hopefully be spectacular and excite many more young people, particularly in Qatar to become athletes,” Coe said yesterday.

When asked about the preparations for the championship Coe said Qatar is ready to host the world’s biggest sporting event of the year in three days’ time.

“I spoke to Dahlan Al Hamad (Vice-President of IAAF and Director General of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 Local Organising Committee) and he said all the preparations are on track and Qatar is ready to host the championship,” Coe said.

Coe was upbeat ahead of the event and said the championship will be different from the last few editions in many aspects.

“The midnight Marathon under floodlights and mixed relays and the ability to have some of the biggest names in our sport in the combined events all competing on the same day, everything is different and this is a good thing and Qatar is given the opportunity,” Coe, 62, said.

The digital innovations which will be implemented at the Championship was one of the reasons for IAAF to allot the event to Qatar, Coe said.

“The digital innovation technology and some of the broadcast technology that we were able to apply to these challenges Championships will make the championship unique,” Coe said.

“Every championship wants to look back and say it did something differently and I think Qatar will be no different,” he added.