Did we all just witness the greatest ever shot-put competition of all time? Yes. Yes, we did.

The event began with the longest ever throw at a world championship. Ryan Crouser set the tone with a 22.36, bettering the previous championship record. By the end, that mark was just the equal-seventh best of the night in what proved to be the greatest – and closest – shot put competition ever.

Tomas Walsh, the reigning champion, stepped into the circle. A little smirk crept across his face as he looked out of the sector and he set off for his throw. The orb sailed well over the 22m mark and as 22.90 flashed up onto the screen he turned to the crowd, arms extended “Are you not entertained?!”, but we certainly were. A 23cm pb for the kiwi!

The Brazilian Romani knocked out a 22.53 on his second throw to move up to the silver position and the top three looked pretty sorted.That all changed when Crouser, the Rio Olympic Champion, hit his fifth round throw out to 22.71, a 7cm personal best.

But nothing, and seriously, I mean nothing, prepared the stadium for what was going to happen in the last round.

Things looked locked up. This was already a ridiculous competition, with third place currently 30cm over the previous meet record. That was until Joe Kovacs stepped up to the plate. His fourth round put of 21.95 had him in fourth place, but as the shot arced its way through the air, we all moved to the edge of our seats in anticipation of the distance.

22.91!!!!

What the absolute hell was going on?! Kovacs, the 2015 world champ, just added 34cm to his pb, pipping Walsh by a mere centimetre. Romani, now relegated to fourth, could only muster a foul.  Tough reality check to what was going on. Not getting. Medal with 22.53.

But it didn’t stop there. Crouser stepped into the circle and exploded with 22.90!!!!!

Absolute scenes in the circle. And because his previous best was 22.71, he passed Walsh on a countback.

With all the hype, again, like Romani, Walsh could stay in the circle and results in a foul. It seemed as though, after his 22.90, he focused his eyes more on the World Record (23.12) and not on the gold. Which is completely understandable.

From the IAAF: Walsh ended the competition as the sixth-best thrower in history, but just the third best on the night. The final produced three of the seven best throws in history. It was also the first comp in which four me threw beyond 22 metres and the first major championships final with eight men going over 21m

The Shot-Put all-time list as it sits now after Doha:

1. Randy Barnes – 23.12
2. Ulf Timmerman – 23.06
3. Alessandro Andrei – 22.91
4. Joe Kovacs – 22.91
5. Ryan Crouser – 22.90
6. Tom Walsh – 22.90

I suppose we should touch on some track too.

Hassan did the most ridiculous double ever. Winning both the 10,000m and 1500m titles at separate meets would be an amazing feat, but at that same champs, both in pbs, is crazy. She also finished her press conference with “If they want to test me, they can test me every single day. Every single day. I believe in clean sport. I always clean”. We’ll just leave that there.

For a championship that has plenty of people whinging about crowds and heat, the amount of records and personal bests, especially in the distance, has been ridiculous. I guess Doha in October really knows how to turn it on.

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You want a local hero returning to form and thrilling the crowd?

Barshim did it all. He literally turned the Khalifa stadium into gridlock. With all the whinging going on about the small crowds, Barshim’s appearance in the High Jump final caused the facility to basically shut down. Rows and rows (and rows) of locals filled the stands, all to watch their hero, the face of Qatar athletics, and reigning world champion do his stuff tonight. And oh, did he deliver.

Every jump he had the crowd in his hands, orchestrating the clap with maestro precision. He brought the drama as well. Sitting on two misses at 2.33, the crowd were on the edge of their seats when he cleared it with ease, teasing the crowd with what was to come.

First to go at 2.35, again, he set the crowd alight with a first- round clearance but it wasn’t all his way, with the remaining two athletes also clearing it first and bumping Barshim back to third.

As the bar headed up to 2.37, a mark no one had touched for a while, Barshim again stepped up to the plate. Wow, adding 8cm to his previous season best, #WhatGravity is right as Khalifa stadium turned into an anti-gravity chamber with the Qatari floating above the clouds and 2.37 to give Qatar is first gold on home soil, sending the crowd into a frenzy and defending his title.

Once the gold was confirmed, volunteers leapt the fence to congratulate their hero. What we suspect was some kind of royalty, possible the Amir of Qatar even made his way onto the field with absolutely no objection from any security or officials. They embraced and Barshim set off on the loudest victory lap I’m sure we’ll see these champs.

I hope they put Barshim’s medal ceremony late, so the Qataris fill the stand to watch him get his medal and enjoy some lively aths.

Oh, you want a world record?

Dalilah Muhammad delivered that in spade when she led the uber fast finishing Sydney McLaughlin to the line in the 400m Hurdles final to win in 52.16 and take 0.04 off her own world record that she set at the USA Trials. Sydney flew home and finished in 52.23, just a mere metre from victory. To drive the point home just how close Sydney was from winning, check out her start. She actually starts about a metre behind the line! She basically ran the 401m Hurdles in 52.23. its most likely so she can attack the first hurdle on her preferred leg but it’s strange to watch. Dalilah scored herself $160,000 USD for her work tonight and Sydney sliced half a second of her best to sit second on the all-time list. At 20 years old.

You want drama?

A strong contingent of Kenyan and Ethiopian fans (basically a quarter of the stadium) went to war over the men’s 3000m Steeplechase. Stealing this from Len Johnson, but it seems that if you want to be a successful Kenyan Steeplechaser, you need personality by the bucketload, And Conselsus Kiptruto’s buckets are overflowing. His heat was full of twists and turns and the final finished with a 250m sprint for home against Lamecha Girma. Girma led over the final steeple but the finishing speed of Kipruto kept him in the picture and a wild lunge for the line gave Kipruto his back to back victory by 0.01s. Girma didn’t go home empty handed as he left with a national record

Wanna finish with something weird?

The Men’s 400m final closed the evening with the standard spectacular lightshow we’ve come accustomed too since the beginning of the champs.

With the favourite Michael Norman out after weirdly jogging his semi (in 45.9 might I add), it seemed to be a race in three, with Steven Gardiner, Fred Kerley and Kirani James the best three picks for the podium.

They set off like any normal race, Kirani with the slight lead, but as the rounded the bend into the home straight Gardiner was flying. At the 350 Gardiner was pulling away from the field comfortably, the biggest shock was the Colombian Anthony Jose Zambrano who looked like he’d just started a 100m flashing home the outside. Gardiner crossed the line in first in 43.48s, a massive new PB, slicing 0.39 off his previous best (also set in Doha) with Zambrano setting a South American Area record in 44.15 and Kerley finishing hard for bronze in 44.17.

Then weirdest thing happened.

Nothing.

Not a sound. No music. No announcements. No congratulations. Nothing.

It was as if someone had pulled the plug on the microphone. We realised then that there wasn’t even an in stadium call for the race.

Such a weird way to finish such a fantastic night of athletics.

Sidenote. Wanna know what happened last time someone ran 43.48 in a world champs final? They broke the world record at the next Olympics…

Media race update

I say these next words with much embarrassment and shame. I injured myself preparing for the Media Race. The morning started off ok. Took myself up to the gym to throw some strides down on the treadmill. Everything was feeling ok for the first few minutes, so I decided to give it some juice. I figured if I put myself in a race, I’m gonna secretly wanna have a dig.

So, I crank up the tready, and the first few strides are feeling ok. This will be a piece of cake I think to myself. Not a moment sooner as that thought passes through my mind, my calf implodes on itself like the big bang (slight exaggeration) I quickly leap onto the edges of the speeding belt and contemplate what’s just happened. I slow it down to a brisk walk, but every step feels like my calf has turned into concrete. Self-diagnosed old man calf syndrome.

Unfortunately, my World Champs 800m media race debut will not be in 2019. My time will come, and hopefully at Oregon 2021 I’ll be fired up and ready to roll out.

The fastest time today was set by Cathal Dennehy the Irish journo who a clocked an impressive 1:56 and is now the three-time media race champ. I will be campaigning for a media race 60m in two years’ time, but knowing my luck and the history of Eugene, it’ll probably be a media 3 mile.

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But F%$% that, how good was that 400!!!!!!

Naser went out like she was shot out of a cannon. Miller-Uibo was in the outside lane looking controlled and to be honest, I don’t think she expected Naser to be absolutely gassing it so early.

She passed SMU just after halfway and that really stuck a rocket up the Bahamian. Looked as though she reacted to the move and changed her plan. But all plans go out the window when someone blazes past you and you’re the Olympic Champion.

SMU came back just a touch down the home straight, but as they got nearer to the finish, the clock was ticking 45…46…47… holy sh!!!t, 48.14!!!!!!!!

I probably swore and I’m definitely still in shock as I write this. Who runs 48.14 at 11.50pm at night? Who runs 48.37 and comes second? Who runs 49.61 and comes fifth????

So many questions. Shaunae grabbed herself the area record and Commonwealth Record (scalping Cathy Freeman which I’m pretty dirty about) but you could tell she wanted the win.

Tokyo next year is gonna be a baller 400m. The men probably don’t need to show up tomorrow. They won’t top that final.

Ok, now back to the stuff I wrote before that outrageous final.

Interesting start to the day here in Doha. Seven aussies on day 7 and (borrowed from Linden Hall) are all on the track competing in a 1500m, though Cedric did have to do four other events before it. The longest day in the stadium for this year’s championships actually caused some rule changes with the IAAF.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3LE1jSBxYg/

Technically, the decathlon goes over a three-day period here in Doh. Day one on October 2, day two beginning on Oct 3, and the 1500m actually starting at 12:15am on Oct 4.

You wouldn’t normally think this an issue except, but from my best recollection, the rule states each session of the decathlon must be competed in a day, and that wouldn’t be the case here.

So, with wisest minds in the athletic and a bit of white-out, the rule now reads something along the lines of “each day of the decathlon must be completed in a 24-hour period”. Sneaking it across the line

Another noticeable factor tonight was the crowd was at its largest since the championships began. Shame it was probably one of the lightest nights on the track with just the multis, the 1500s and the women’s 400m final. Not saying they weren’t all cracking competitions (they were) but Thursday night is the start of the Qatari weekend, the Villaggio mall was absolutely pumping. Seems like the teenage hangout for young Qatari’s. No different from a Friday night anywhere in Australia.

There were a few events last night, and medal ceremonies today that are guaranteed to be part of an ath nerd related trivia one day (my kinda party):

At which wold championships were two sets of double bronze medals handed out on the same day to athletes who hadn’t tied/achieved different performances?

Bonus question: What were the events?

Answer – Doha 2019, men’s Hammer and Men’s 110m

Don’t ask me to explain it, it’s a mess. But one day, I’m going to get the Video Judge for these champs on a podcast and our minds will all be blown.

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We stood there, arm in arm, and belted out a national anthem that would make Tina Arena proud. A moment I’m sure many in the team will never forget, let alone KLB, who stood atop the podium as Advance Australia Fair blasted through Khalifa Stadium.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3IN4LGBrV_/

This day started a little different that normal though. It began with a desert tour of Qatar.

We were bundled into some four wheels drives and we headed south-east for some dune bashing fun. Our drivers were native Qatari locals, dressed in the traditional thoub and Ghutra. This gave us a little peak into the hierarchy in Qatar. As we were making our trip south, our driver pulled into the supermarket parked outside, and beeped his horn. A worked shuffled out as our driver wound down the window, handed over some money, and waited in the beautiful air-conditioned car. Moments later, the worked popped back out with a packed of ciggys and some change. I’m wondering if this technique also works in Australia. Maybe when I get home, ill drive down to the local IGA, give the horn a toot and hope someone with bring me some bread and milk.

If you look at a map of Doha, zoom out and look south. You’ll find a spot where a road just ends. That’s where the adventures begin! We let the air out of the tires and hit the rolling sand dunes.

Our drivers definitely had a sense of adventure as we were bashing through the dunes like a wrecking ball. Drifting and sliding with precision off some the steepest dunes I’ve seen. The more we laughed the more he bashed, sometimes giving us the classis “look mum, no hands” as we were fishtailing our way across the desert.

You know you’re in for a good time when the 4×4 you’re in has multiple handles for each passenger. And you know you’re in for a crazier time when most of those handles had been broken off! At one point we can off a dune so hard, literally everyone hit the roof minimum three times. I’m not sure even our driver has expected it as his Ghutra came flying off. 

Before we knew it, we’d actually travelled a far way south, and during a stop someone asked, “Which way is Saudi Arabia?” and the driver responded with “on a clear day, it’s just there”. Next minute, we’re atop a gigantic dune, on the precipice staring straight down and the driver announces, “that’s Saudi Arabia right there.” We pull up a map and we are literally sitting on the border between two countries that aren’t too friendly with each other. We appear to be driving away from the dune edge, until the driver throws the 4×4 in reverse and we plummet backwards down the side off this humongous dune.

We finally get to a rest area “Desert Camp” which is an amazing set of tents and deck chairs right on the Arabian gulf. The water was stunningly blue and quite warm to the touch. This was also our opportunity for a quick camel ride, and when I say quick, I mean probably 80 metres all up. Pretty quick sesh but I kind of got the gist of what camels were about.

After some light refreshments, we got to making our way back to the city. We were making good time and some other vehicles came into view. We were gaining on them, so someone asked, “How fast are we going?” to which I replied “130kmph!”. Gunning along the sand at a speed that would get your license shredded up on the spot a quite the feeling ill let you know.

If you’re ever in Doha, hit the dunes.

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One moment, there’s absolutely nothing happening. Next minute, you don’t know where to look.

Tonight, was one of those nights.

After watching Solomon, Boden and Carli move on through to the semi’s & Buckingham and Klein make their debuts, there was a good 90min break in action in Khalifa Stadium. 

It was a good moment to slip away for a quick hit of Italian in the mall next to the track. Although I always leave room for dessert, thankfully, the action on the field delivered exactly what I was craving. With a cherry on top.

Heading back inside after the break, it was all happening. The men’s pole vault was well underway, the women’s javelin was warming up and Bendere was about to cement herself as the new 400m queen of Australia.

A brilliant run from the outside lane against the ridiculously talented Miller-Uibo, Oboya backed up her heat pb with another fantastic run.

More semis came and went, and this is where things got tricky.

Like a good tennis match our heads where bouncing back and forth around the stadium.

Kelsey’s on the runway.

Mondo has one more attempt at 5.92.

The 800m final just hit the bell.

This went on and on. Non-stop bangers.

Kendrick retained his title after a great battle with Mondo and Lisek. The trio topped it off with a quick picnic on the mats followed by a synchronised back flip.

Donovan Brazier ignored all the outside drama going on to score a world title and scalp Johnny Gray’s American Record.

And finally, when it all calmed down. Sitting in fourth, at the top of the runway for her last attempt. We had a chance to really focus the whole stadium on Kelsey-Lee Barber.

Clutch.

Launching the spear 2.91m further than she had thrown all competition, it sailed beyond the bronze, then silver, then gold medal marks to pierce the earth at 66.56m.

A nervous wait for the German and two Chinese athletes to finish their throws but she’d done enough to claim out maiden gold medal of the championships and ninth Australian World Champs gold all-time.

From the media bay, it was jumps for shouts and horribly missed high fives all round. One of the best bits about this was sharing it with the other nations in the stands. The Japanese media crew who’ve been next to us all week gave us a hearty congratulations. The comradery in the stands in fantastic. And it didn’t stop there. Waiting for the bus and I bumped into Norwegian friend who the previous night id shared a seat with and discussed our aths lives and stories.

He greeted me with a “congratulations on tonight” and I replied with a “congratulations on last night”. We shared a laugh and outwardly showed our pride in the superb athletes wearing our nations colours and giving it their all on the world stage.

They say you’ve never really been to a world champs till you’ve witnessed an Australian gold.

Well, you can tick that one off the list boss.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3GBiF8Bt6C/

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B3C0axPIPvN/

The capital of Burkina Faso houses 2.2million people and you better believe that every single one of them were tuning into Doha to watch that triple jump!

Now back into action, today was a recharge day of sorts. After the big nights on the walks, I traded in the gym sesh for some extra sleep. Kicking off my day at 12 straight to the media centre to get my business in order for the day.

Scouring the media food buffet, I finally found something that wasn’t a shade of brown to eat and my body was very thankful for it. Sitting back down while catching up with Tamsyn Manou (who is here with the international broadcast teaming killing it!) I got to tick off another World champion, Olympic Champion and one-time World record holder Dan O’Brien. Basic topic of conversation was how we could recycle Tamsyn’s lunch and use it to feed the group of homeless cats at their hotel.

Side topic: a group of cats is called a clowder. Who knew that? Apparently, it can also be called a glaring, particularly if the cats are uncertain of each other. Huh? How am I supposed to know what to call a group of cats when I see them? Do I need to ask them questions? Have you all met before? Anyone knew here? Is this group a clowder or a glaring?

A group of kittens is also called a kindle

Side-Side topic: There are actually so many stray cats here its crazy. One wandered onto the course during the 50k walk the other night and tonight a few infiltrated the warm-up track (they probably didn’t have accreditation) and were cosying up to a few athletes during warms ups.

Apart from the epic aths action again tonight (the stadium was basically an Ethiopian dance party up to and during that 5k) the graphics on display has been epic.

The discus and javelin are showing release angles and speed of release bringing back memories of playing London 2012 of PlayStation and just dropping bombs in the jav. If there was any better time to bring back the Olympics video game, surely Tokyo 2020 is it. 

The triple jump data also gave a new insight into what’s happening in our events. Giving distance breakdowns for all three phases as well as speed at each phase. This is a commenters dream! I need to get myself a gig in the big leagues.

I finish off, it was great to see Qatar get its first medal of the champs in the Men’s 400m Hurdles. Abderrahman Samba flew home from lane 9 to the roar of the crowd for third. No other bronze medallist had been interviewed post-race during these champs, but samba had his own special Arabic press conference right in the middle of the stadium! 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3DTIPVnAb5/

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2:38am

Finally returning to my Antarctic hotel room, it’s been quite an adventure. We’ll discuss the track and Field heroics later, but first, I need to delve into the adventure that was the magical mystery bus tour of Doha.

Its 11.23pm and I’m hustling out of the track after the women’s 100m final (we’ll get to that at the end), I was planning on heading to the women’s 20km race walk to catch Jemima Montag and Katie Hayward cut some laps of the Corniche. I was thinking maybe a bus back to the hotel then a cab/uber would suffice. Might take a little while but what the heck, it’s a 20km walk and I have about 40mins till they start.

I get to the bus bay and guess what, there’s buses going directly to the Corniche! I’m in luck. I’ll catch the start of the midnight walk sesh and be able to really soak it up.

 

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Tonight it’s the women’s turn to show their super powers over 100m DO NOT miss the Women’s 100m Finals at 23:20, where the lights go out and the magic begins. The Women’s 100m will be the final race of the evening, with a surprise light display on the track. Head to Khalifa International Stadium or you will have #FOMO #WorldAthleticsChamps #Doha2019

A post shared by IAAFDOHA2019 (@iaafdoha2019) on Sep 29, 2019 at 8:51am PDT

I was so full of hope, but it was all downhill from here. As we putt along the freeway, you can tell it’s been a long day, with tired heads of the international media all just resting their eyes quickly before firing up again to cover the walk. Time ticks by and the driver takes a drastic left-hand turn. I’m a bit curious at this manoeuvre as I know the Corniche as giant skyscrapers all lit up like Christmas but I’m fairly sure I can see them disappear behind us.

20mins into our supposed 15min trip and I can see a grumpy American fidgeting in his seat, and he whispers, “we’re lost”. By this time, we’ve been driving about 20km an hour in the slow lane down the freeway. The chants of “we’re lost” grow louder and louder but the driver doesn’t want to admit it. Those who have Wi-Fi are pulling up their maps to see our bus slowly crawling Saudi Arabia, definitely NOT the right direction.

Finally, a young Japanese journalist with Wi-Fi, pulls his maps up and sits next to the driver to direct him to the walks course. We’re in luck.

Or so we thought.

This driver’s phone continually rings the whole trip whilst our Japanese navigator tries to direct. Every time we come to a fork in the road, the driver decides to answer his phone and miss the continuous shouting “LEFT! LEFT! LEFT!”

We continued on straight.

“This is stooped” and “We’re gonna miss the race” flies out of the grumpy American on a loop every 30s.

We somehow make it to the city but again, the calls for “RIGHT!!!” go unanswered, unlike the driver’s phone.

We take a later right and end up driving down a one-way street to a dead-end. We begin reversing down this street and the and the navigation has now been taken over by another Japanese man, and Italian fella and a Dutch photographer.

We finally get going again and we can see the lights of the course. By this time, we’d been driving for almost 90mins, the athletes were 10k into their 20k race while we were still trying to find the venue.

Then, out of nowhere, we finally get to the bus terminal. But it’s on the otherside of the road. Someone shouts “yea you need to drive 1km down the round to a roundabout to turn around”

Knowing this driver’s experience with roads and directions in general, we cause a mutiny and tell him to stop and open the door right here in the middle of the street. The commotion causes a police-officer to come and block the door telling us we can’t get off here. We plead and beg him to rescue us from our captive drive and finally, like hostages free from a bank heist, we escape into the midnight air. Free at last to catch the final half of the midnight 20k walk.

Now finally, back to the aths.

Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce was next level. She missed the 2017 London World championships because she had her first child, Zyon. But she’s certainly back and basically better than ever (well 0.01 away from being better than ever). Her hair may have changed colour between the heats and tonight’s semi & final, but the trademark missile start certainly hadn’t changed. Clocking 10.71 for the win (her pb is 10.70) she’s destroyed all around her.

 

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Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is literally a unicorn ? She takes GOLD in the Women’s 100m with a world leading time of 10.71 ?????? #WorldAthleticsChamps

A post shared by IAAFDOHA2019 (@iaafdoha2019) on Sep 29, 2019 at 1:43pm PDT

To put it into perspective, SAFP and I are the same age. I’m currently trying to convince my broken body to put together 800m of movement in the media race on Oct 4, whilst SAFP is basically dropping Pb’s, winning her fourth world 100m title, 10 years after her first, two years after having a baby. Compare the pair.

My other highlight of the night was the triple jumping effort from Burkina Faso’s own superstar Hugues Fabrice Zango.

Heading into the final round sitting in fourth position, the stocky jumper pulled a 17.66m leap out of his back pocket to snag a bronze and a new pb and African area record.
He also grabbed Burkina Faso’s first ever medal at any major athletics championship. Burkina Faso has also sent athletes to every single world championship since Helsinki 1983. Their previous best result was a 10^th place in the Men’s Long Jump in 1995.

Give him the keys to the city!

 

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Vainqueur du concours des championnats de France avec 17m50 ( Nouveau record d’Afrique outdoor )! Merci à tous. Une pause d’une semaine s’impose avant d’entamer la deuxième partie de la saison. Dieu au contrôle comme toujours. Tranquillement on avance!!! . . . #Dieuaucontrole #teamt #triplejump #longjump #competition #championnatdefrance#healthy #Artois #France #burkinafaso?? #roadtodoha #nextstep . . . ? @stadion_actu

A post shared by Hugues Fabrice Zango (@huguesfabricezango) on Jul 30, 2019 at 10:06am PDT

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Quick bicep session in the gym in preparation for the media 800m, some freeze dried coffee and its off down Jawaan street for bus.

Fast forward to the athletics and it was another epic night on the Mondo.

The event presentation for the men’s 100m was next level! Do yourself a favour and check it out. The laser light show was jaw-dropping and I look forward to the next final. I hope they roll it out for all the finals, but for those who’ve seen it, I’m wondering what happens when some has a really long name. What are their plans for announcing Shelly-Anna Fraser-Pryce? Christina Coleman barely fit down the front straight. Good luck to them!

Anyway…

Tajay Gayle exploded in the first round with a 16cm pb and led the comp from start to finish. With everyone fighting for the minor medals, Gayle threw together two successive fouls before dropping a beastly 8.69m in round four. He added 7cm to the Jamaican record from previously held by James Beckford, bumped Echevarria out of the all-time top 10 to sit in 10^th place and grabbed Jamaica’s first ever Long Jump gold medal.

 

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Congratulations #TajayGayle on a sizzling performance to win the men’s long jump in the #DohaWorldChampionships. Gayle becomes the 10th best long jumper of all time with a leap of 8.69 meters. #Jamaica is proud of this major achievement! #WorldAthleticsChamps .

A post shared by Hon. Andrew Holness (@andrewholnessjm) on Sep 28, 2019 at 12:23pm PDT

All this from and athlete who, despite having an awesome season leading to Doha (improved his pb to 8.32m, was the last placed of athletes from qualifying, jumped 7.89m.

The women’s 10,000 was the rowdiest event tonight on the program, with a huge contingent of East African fans loving the Kenyan/Ethiopian (& Dutch) break-away pack. Hassan was way too good on the night, chasing down Letesenbet Gidey for the gold. I guess the air-conditioning worked well as the race produced 11 personal bests of the athletes including seven of the top eight re-writing their best times.

The aussies killed as Ellie Pashley and Sinead Diver ground out superb new bests, knocking off almost 25s a piece to finished 13^th and 14^th and move into the 4^th and 5^th Australian all-time spots.

 

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After lots of km’s, laughs, coffee’s together over the last few weeks we got to put it out there on the track tonight in the 10km at the World Champs in Doha. Couldn’t have done it without these three- they are the best. And huge thanks to mum and dad who came to watch this race (and basically every race), my clever coach and great friend @romeothemoose (also competing in the marathon) and @melbtrackclub who has given me many great opportunities over the last year- including the opportunity to train with these girls. Thanks to @athleticsaustralia for the opportunity. PB 31:18, 13th and Tokyo Olympic Qualifier ? @newbalanceaustralia

A post shared by Ellie Pashley (@ellieopash) on Sep 28, 2019 at 6:21pm PDT

Those were the events of the night for mine, although we did see a world record in the mixed 4×400. Hard to see this event lasting too much longer with it sitting in the timetable before the individual 400s, teams are never going to run their A team, and apart from Japan who ran a female first, every team went male-female-female-male. Boring. The best bit about this event is the ebb and flow of lead, but that all goes out the window when everyone just does the same thing.

A quiet day for the aussies tonight but I’m going to venture out to the Corniche for the first time for my midnight debut to check out the Women’s 20km walk.

With two aussies doing battled, Katie Hayward and Jemima Montag, I’d hate to get ahead of myself, but….medals?

Fingers crossed!

 

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Let the Champs begin… ft 6ft Elle ??? #oneteam #thisisathletics @iaafdoha2019

A post shared by KT (@katie_hayward) on Sep 27, 2019 at 9:00am PDT

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Matt Lynch – Runner’s Tribe

From the author: I’ve teamed up with @runnerstribe over the next fortnight to deliver a daily rundown of the 2019 @iaaf_athletics Championships direct from Doha, Qatar  The Doha Diaries will delve into the day to day life of one of the richest countries in the world during the biggest athletics meet on the calendar.

Matt Lynch’s Doha Diaries – Day 2

We finally made it to the big dance.

We survived almost 18 months since the last major championships, but today we finally got to see our Aussie Track and Field heroes don the “green” and gold again in the air conditioned, feat of engineering wizardry that is the Khalifa stadium!

Feeling inspired by all the amazing athletes in Doha and an early, time zone induced wake up, I headed to the hotel gym to bust out some reps. After knocking off a few virtual laps of Lake Merced on a pretty cool treadmill, I remembered on October 4th there’s a media race in the stadium. There’s no way I could pass up an opportunity to throw on a pair of splitties and hit the track.  

Unfortunately for my fat, out of shape shelf, it’s an 800m. 

Just like the milers of yesteryear, I’ll be aiming for a sub 4min and not dying. But if I only achieve one of those goals (hopefully the latter) I’ll be happy.

Due to the late booking of my trip (previous plans fell through), I’ve had to book a little further away from the media hotel cluster. This cluster is also the central drop off and pick up point for the free media transport. Although I’m only staying about 600m away, it’s a heavy 600. Think Sahara Desert crossing. To make matters worse, everything is so blindingly cold inside, that when you take that first step into the oven that is Doha, your entire body is covered in condensation. It’s a weird feeling walking outside, sunglasses fogging up and being soaked in a few seconds.

Out at the track, I set myself up in the Main Media Centre (MMC) and dug into the media feast. Random meatballs with BBQ sauce, tiny olive pizzas and a great set of the thinnest spring rolls I’ve ever seen (I think they were also filled with cheese?) 

The dessert section only got a light browsing by myself, but it should be warned that I will be making many, many more appearances there in the future. It is only day 1.

The conditions today seemed more oppressive than normal. Sitting in the media bays we are a little higher up, but it looked like tough going out there for the athletes.

Doing a little bit here with Oceania Athletics, it was great to see so many athletes flying their countries flag in the 100m prelim rounds. Don Motellang from the Marshall Islands grabbed himself a person best, a goal I’m sure every athlete here wants to achieve, and Fiji’s own sprint king Banuve Tabakaucoro did enough to get him through the prelims and earn another run in the stadium.

On the Australian front, Morgan Mitchell was incredible as she closed like she was running down-hill to move to the semis, Genevieve Gregson scored. Tokyo2020 qualifier and made the steeple final, while McSweyn made his first world final after finishing fourth in his 5km heat.

Mixed night for the rest of the aussies. I’m sure a lot will be disappointed with how they went. Sometimes athletics is treats you well, and other times it sucks. 

To finish off, there was a great moment on the track in the first 5km heat. These two athletes were lapped multiple times (once after the bell which was absolute chaos as they stayed on the rail) with Aruba’s Jonathon Busby basically staggering with a horizontal lean with 250m to go. As Braima Dabó from Guinea-Bissau caught up to him with 200m left, he offered his support and basically carried Busby to the finish line. 

Guinea-Bissau’s Braima Dabo sacrifices own 5,000m race to help exhausted rival in Doha

It was a long last 200m, busby barely staying vertical, the crowd roaring in support, possibly more distance runner thing imaginable happened. Dabó dragged Busby the final few metres, and as Busby stumbled across the line, barely able to stand up, he stopped his watch. Gotta get those accurate splits.

Matt Lynch’s Doha Diaries – Day 1

The post Matt Lynch’s Doha Diaries – Day 2 appeared first on Runner's Tribe.

Matt Lynch – Runner’s Tribe

From the author: As we approach the pinnacle of track and field, I’m teaming up with @runnerstribe over the next fortnight to deliver a daily rundown of the 2019 @iaaf_athletics Championships direct from Doha, Qatar ?? The Doha Diaries will delve into the day to day life of one of the richest countries in the world during the biggest athletics meet on the calendar.

Matt Lynch’s Doha Diaries – Day 1

After the longest wait for a major championship I can remember (530 days since the close of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games), September 27 marks the beginning of the 2019 IAAF World Athletics from Doha, Qatar.

Booking a flight was made easy as basically only Qatar Airways flies into Doha. I did have a very brief thought of flying Etihad into Abu Dhabi and hopping in a car, but a five-hour roady along the Arabian Gulf just for a handful of Virgin Velocity points probably wasn’t worth it.

Apart from a spot where it felt like we dropped a few thousand feet in a second, the Lego Movie and Creed sequels kept me strapped in for what was a pretty smooth, enjoyable ride. 

Doha definitely is more of a transition airport. Exiting a full A380, we hit the junction between baggage claim and transfers, and I think about 85% were off to another destination. Something that made the visa line an absolute breeze.

On the other side we were greeted by a ton of helpful LOC volunteers and a wall of humidity. I was bundled into a car with some German photographers, set radio to 105.7 Qatari FM and we hit the road to our hotels. 

A Doha freeway is a whole different beast. Things like “lanes”, “blinkers” and “speed limits” seem to be more of a guide than anything else. Organised chaos. We spent our trip straddling two out of the three lanes and finished off reversing down a one-way street to find the hotel we’d already driven past once.

After a brief kip in my refrigerator hotel room, I set out to brave the heat and grab my accreditation before things got too hectic. Qatari Uber is definitely a 5-star experience, after a brief stop at the food mart from a giant bottle of water, Wahid from Pakistan got me swiftly to the track as we discussed his mates who now live in Australia and the horrible local driving.

Down at the accred centre I was met with ““Oh you’re from Australia. I love the Australian accent. I watch the YouTube Aussie reviews”.  Great to know Ozzie man reviews has made it to the Qatari accreditation centre. I grabbed my pass and swag bag and headed out to explore the Aspire Zone, where all the best Track and Field will happen over the next 10 days.

Met up with one of the many Australian officials working here in Doha and got a little trackside tour. Helen Roberts will be overseeing the video replay/Hawkeye which is now used to aid the officials during the champs. 

The officials are staying in The Torch hotel, which is about 200m from the stadium and provides stunning outlook of the Aspire Zone. Looking forward to having a dip on the 19th floor pool which juts out of the torch and even gives a sneaky view of the track.

After exploring the Caesars Palace-esque Villaggio Mall beside the Aspire Zone, I was making my way out of the torch when I bumped into a friend who does a whole bunch of awesome media stuff for the IAAF. After saying G’day, there was a third person there who was facing away from as I approached.

I turned and said, “Hey mate, Matt Lynch”, extended my hand, he replied

“Hey Matt, Mike Powell”

Bloody hell, that was a shock. And he was an absolute legend. 

After noticing I was Aussie, he got talking about Dave Culbert and the night he broke the World record. He was running around like crazy (as you do when you’ve just jumped 8.95) and Dave pulls him aside and goes “Mike, calm down. Carl still has two jumps left”

He apparently loved hanging with the Australians while on the circuit and asked even asked how Darren Clark was going. I mentioned his son just won the 100/200 at state and we replied “oh yea I saw that on facebook”

I honestly could have stayed listening to him for hours. Great to see a champion of the sport still super excited about athletics and all the levels of the sport.

Day 1 done and dusted, and I’ve already bumped into a World Champion & World record holder.

And the comp doesn’t start till tonight!

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