by Stuart Weir
Dalailah Muhammed, 400m H WR, photo by Getty Images/ IAAF
Jumping in Khalifa Stadium, photo by Getty Images / IAAF
Sifan Hassan, photo by PhotoRun.net
Sportsmanship: Briama Dabo (Guinea Bissau) who stopped to help Jonathan Busby (Aruba) across the finish line, photo by Getty Images / IAAF
2019 World Championships The good, the bad and the ugly
The stadium: Excellent, revamped this year.
Scheduling: Partly dictated by TV but several evening programs had an hour’s gap.
Missed opportunity: Running one of the show-piece races, women’s 100m at 11.20pm in an almost empty stadium
Merchandise: Did not seem to be any official mechandise on sale. Programs too were hard to find.
Organization: The event was well organized and ran smoothly.
Crowd: Disappointingly empty stadium much of the time but rocking at weekend – but Moscow and Beijing were a bit the same.
Race of the week: That’s hard one. Dalilah Muhammed’s WR in the 400m hurdles, Siffan Hassan’s 3:51.95 in the W1500m and Colseslus Kipruto winning the 3000m by one hundredth of a second all have a claim.
Field event: Either the epic men’s pole vault or Men’s shot where the top three were separated by 1 centimeter
Sportsmanship: Briama Dabo (Guinea Bissau) who stopped to help Jonathan Busby (Aruba) across the finish line.
Must do better: Officials involved in the decision to disqualify Shakima Wimbley in the 400m, only to re-instate her when USA protest and then to re-open the issue when Brazil protested. I have an idea: why not check the film before announcing the result and end this embarrassing farce.
Seven Meter girl: Malaika Mihambo won the women’s long jump, leaping over seven metres, not once, not, twice but three times.
Triple: Dina Asher-Asher Smith who became the first Brit to win three medals at a World Championship
Strength in depth: USA women’s 4 by 400m relay team were the fastest in the prelim so they replaced all 4 women in the team for the final and won again!
Unnecessary intrusion: The cameraman invading high-jumpers’ space to stick a camera in their faces after the jumped.
The jury is out: While the crowd enjoyed the light show before 100 meter and some other races, athletes found it distracting
Year of the Mother: Gold medals for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Allyson Felix, Nia Ali, Hellen Obiri and others
Nonsense of the week: Award of a second bronze medal to faller Orlando Ortega, based on guesswork as to where he would have finished.
Most boring walk: Jamaican 4 by 100 girls in mixed zone. Everyone wants to interview Shelly-Ann. No interest in the other three.
Shock: Jamaica men not to final of 4 by 100m
Dealing with Pressure: Mutaz Barshim, carrying the hopes of the host nation, with two failures at 2.33 but sails over on the third attempt and goes on to win gold.
Mixed motives: Protests by Italy and Canada against USA in the men’s 4 by 100. I am sure they were just seeking justice, completely unaware that they might reach final if USA were DQed.
