Chepngetich beats Doha heat to win midnight marathon
Defending world champion Chelimo settles for silver
Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope makes a save from an Aston Villa shot on goal during the Premier League match at Villa Park in Birmingham on Sept 28. (AP)
DOHA, Sept 28, (RTRS): Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich overcame extreme heat and humidity to win the world championship midnight marathon in a gruelling test of survival that saw nearly a third of the 70 starters fail to reach the finish line.
Chepngetich, who has clocked the third fastest marathon of all-time, did not come close to matching that in the punishing conditions. Her winning time of two hours, 32 minutes, 43 seconds was the slowest ever to win the world championships.
Still, it was enough for a comfortable event began with the governing International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) issuing a statement that the marathon would go ahead despite concerns over extreme heat and athlete welfare.
As temperatures hovered in the mid30s Celsius the runners waited their turn in the spotlight as the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad alThani, with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach sitting on one side and IAAF boss Sebastian Coe on the other, declared the championships open to an explosion of fireworks.
With the first gold medal of the championships up for grabs the women stepped up to the start line ready to tackle a steamy 26.2 miles (42.195
Ruth Chepngetich, of Kenya, crosses the finish line to win the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar on Sept
28. (AP)
km) floodlit course along the waterfront of Doha’s famous Corniche promenade.
The race scheduled to begin one minute before midnight on Friday and finish in the early hours of Saturday saw the field head out right on the stroke of 12.
The midnight start tempered the sting of a searing sun but with the temperature sitting at 32.7ºC and the humidity index at 73% the conditions were right on the limit of what the IAAF said were allowable.
Despite IAAF assurances that athlete welfare was the top priority, some felt the conditions were so severe that the race should not have been run.
“The humidity kills you,” said Volha Mazuronak of Belarus. “There is nothing to breathe. I thought I wouldn’t finish. “It’s disrespect towards the athletes. “A bunch of high-ranked officials gathered and decided that it would take (the championships) here but they are sitting in the cool and they are probably sleeping right now.”
With the city’s skyscrapers providing a sparkling backdrop, the runners set out on the first of six laps of the seven kilometre circuit with Sardana Trofimova, one of a handful of Russian athletes cleared to compete in Doha as an Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) setting the early pace.