Runner helps ailing rival cross the line on first night of track and field’s world championships

You didn't need a stopwatch or a measuring tape to identify the biggest winner on the first night of track and field's world championships.

The gold medal for sportsmanship went to Braima Suncar Dabo, the 5,000-meter runner from Guinea-Bissau who stopped his own race to help a struggling competitor finish Friday night.

Dabo held up an exhausted Jonathan Busby and together they staggered around the last turn and over the finish line to great applause, even though the other runners had crossed 5 minutes earlier. Busby, from Aruba, collapsed onto the track and was placed in a wheelchair by medical staff.

"Any athlete in that situation would do the same thing," Dabo said through a translator.

"It was something normal to do, to help someone from another country, because (Busby) was representing his country as well." All Busby said was "thank you," Dabo added.

Both Busby and Dabo are the only athletes from their nations at the world championships. Both men competed under special invitations that allow countries without strong track programs to send one athlete to the championships, even if that athlete has not met qualifying standards.

Dabo was far off the pace, and his goal wasn't to qualify for the final, but just to run a personal best. Dabo's time — nearly five minutes slower than the leader — was officially recorded as a personal best even after stopping to help Busby.

But Dabo said he'd been much faster in the past.

Officially, Busby was disqualified. But the crowd roared for he and Dabo as they crossed the line.

IOC president promises 'fresh look' at Russian doping

The leader of the IOC pledged that he supports reopening the Russian doping case, promising "a fresh look" at the new evidence after allegations that critical lab data was manipulated before it was sent to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

IOC president Thomas Bach spoke Friday at a news conference to kick off the world track and field championships.

He was sitting alongside Sebastian Coe, the president of track's international federation (IAAF), which earlier this week, based partly on the latest developments involving the data, extended the suspension of the organization that oversees Russia's track program.

Thirty Russians are at the world championships competing as neutral athletes without their flag or anthem.

Bach essentially repeated things everyone already knows — that WADA, not the IOC, is in charge of the case, with the Court of Arbitration for Sport available for appeals. He refused to speculate on what Russia's status might be when the Tokyo Olympics start in 10 months.

WADA has given Russia three weeks to explain the manipulation of data from the Moscow lab, which was being used to pursue cases against cheaters at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and other events.

Russia's anti-doping agency could face suspension again if tampering is confirmed, though it's unclear what, if any, sanctions would follow from the IOC.

"There is a plan, due process ... and they will come up with the decision within WADA, and the IOC. of course, fully respects these new rules and these procedures," Bach said. "At this moment, I cannot speculate or comment on what result this procedure from WADA will be."

The IOC has not always followed WADA's lead, however.

In 2016, the IOC did not act on the WADA recommendation that Russia's Olympic committee be kicked out of the Rio de Janeiro Games, instead allowing the individual sports federations to sort through their cases.

It resulted in Russia sending a single athlete — long jumper Darya Klishina, who could prove she was clean because she trained in the United States — to compete in track. But Russians fielded full teams in other sports.

Those decisions might best illustrate the vast differences in the way Bach and Coe have handled the Russian scandal.

Russia's track federation has been banned by the IAAF since 2015, and this is the second straight championships at which Russians are competing not under their flag.

"We were confronted by a challenge in our sport that was of such a level of seriousness that we had to make a decision," Coe said.

"You're all very familiar with the journey we're on . ... Frankly, my main concern was not the flag but actually to try, where possible, to keep (clean) athletes in international competition."

With Russia's anti-doping agency still under suspension, and with cases piling up, the IOC banned Russia's Olympic Committee from the 2018 Winter Games, but let Russians compete nonetheless — not under their own flag but under the heading "Olympic Athlete from Russia."

Many viewed that as a halfmeasure, at best, and the same skeptics were upset when the IOC reinstated Russia's Olympic committee immediately after the Games ended.

They are now looking on anxiously as the latest chapter plays out.

"Clean athletes have been clinging to every hope that the WADA and IOC power brokers will stand up for their rights since this sad saga began years ago," said Travis Tygart, tCEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "And, while clean athletes' feeling of anger and despair from the leaders' past decisions will not simply be erased, there now appears another defining moment to actually stand up for the good of sport and the Olympic values."

Bach said that, like Coe, his main priority is making sure clean athletes aren't penalized for problems they had nothing to do with in their country.

"I think there's mutual respect for the way we have to go," Bach said, "because of our different areas of responsibility."

Bekele looking to make most of Kipchoge's absence in Berlin

Triple Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele is favored to make the most of Eliud Kipchoge's absence in Sunday's Berlin Marathon, where more world records have fallen than any other.

Defending champion Gladys Cherono hopes to become the first to win the women's race four times.

Since Khalid Khannouchi set a world record to win the London Marathon in 2:05:38 in 2002, the record has been lowered seven times — only in Berlin.

Kipchoge set the world record of 2:01:39 in the German capital last year but is skipping Sunday's race to focus on his attempt to become the first to break the twohour mark at a specially organized event in Vienna, Austria in October.

It opens the door for a group of Ethiopians who have personal records under 2:05 — triple Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele (who won with a personal best of 2:03:03 in 2016), Leul Gebrselassie, Sisay Lemma, Birhanu Legese and Feyisa Lilesa.

None are expected to challenge Kipchoge's outstanding mark from last year, but could threaten the Kenyan's fastest time in the world this year, his 2:02:37 from London in April.

Felix Kandie is the fastest Kenyan on the start list, but two fellow countrymen could spring a surprise with training partners Abel Kipchumba and Bethwel Yegon showing very good form in the buildup to their marathon debuts in Berlin.

Cherono set a course record of 2:18:11 in claiming her third Berlin victory last year after wins in 2017 and 2015.

"I've trained well and my aim is to retain my title," Cherono said. "I hope also to set a personal best."

Fellow Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot had to cancel her start due to an Achilles tendon problem but there are still six women starting who have personal bests below 2:22, while Ethiopia's Meseret Defar has the potential to run much faster than her personal best of 2:23:33.

"In the last few years I often had injuries but now I've been training well. I decided to run Berlin because the course is so fast," Defar said.

Other athletes are attempting to reach Olympic qualifying times — 2:11:30 for men and 2:29:30 for women, respectively — on the course.

But the majority of the record 46,983 registered runners for the 46th edition will be happy just to finish long after the favorites do.