Eugene. Walking and the marathon may be kicked out of the World Athletics Championships in the future.
due to global warming.
– Sebastian Coe tells the BBC that we will have to look at separating them from the tournaments and putting those branches in more suitable places.
The International Athletics Federations of World Athletics Federations have witnessed three hot tournaments in a row now.
The first Doha 2019, where Khalifa Stadium was cooled to 26°C with the help of air conditioning, but where both the marathon and the night walk had to be scheduled due to the heat.
Now this did not help.
The women’s marathon in particular was a nightmare, with so many runners and shuttle traffic collapsing into the medical tents.
“I was prepared for the worst, but it got a thousand times worse,” said the Swede Cecilia Norbaum afterwards.
Track and field athletes collapsed in the heat
At the Tokyo Olympics, both the marathon and the walk were moved to the winter resort of Sapporo, 80 miles north.
Here in Eugene, the temperature has reached 33 degrees Celsius and there have been relatively few accidents. It was the hot women’s 5,000m competition that took the most casualties in the afternoon heat, as Germany’s Sarah Benvares and Finland’s Camilla Richardson collapsed in the afternoon heat inside Hayward Field.
But last summer, Oregon suffered record heat that killed dozens and forced the US qualifiers to qualify for the Olympics.
We’re not the only sport that has to deal with this. Had the World Cup been held in London, we would have faced the same problem, says Coe, referring to the heat wave in England where the record temperature was 40.3 degrees on Wednesday.
The highest temperature ever measured.
Climate change is here and it will not go away.
Therefore, he does not rule out the possibility of moving restroom disciplines such as marathon and walking to spring or fall, when the air is cooler.
The World Athletics Championships are being held for two years in a row now, and will host Budapest next summer.
Here in Eugene, Tokyo has the next World Cup in 2025 and is facing the same problems it had during the Olympics.
