World Athletics Championships schedule today: Women’s marathon offers first gold in Doha

The World Championships begin on Friday in Doha
AFP/Getty Images
Malik Ouzia @MalikOuzia_27 September 2019

The 2019 World Athletics Championships get underway in Doha on Friday afternoon.

For the next ten days, Standard Sport will be guiding you through the competition with a daily preview of the action…

Who will fill the Bolt-shaped void?

The first global championship 100m competition of the post-Usain Bolt era gets underway on day one, and, for once, the sport’s blue-riband event comes in a little under the radar.

US star Christian Coleman is the favourite to go one better than his silver medal from London two years ago, but is not exactly the toast of the sporting world at the moment, having only escaped a ban for three missed drugs tests on a technicality.

Public enemy number one, however, is still defending champion Justin Gatlin, now aged 37, who is one of only two other men among the entrants to have run below 9.9 seconds in what has been an underwhelming season in the event.

Bolt has been the headline act at every global championships since the 2008 Olympics... until now
AP

If the American duo aren’t at their best, it really is anyone’s gold medal, because you could throw a blanket over most of the other leading contenders’ seasons best, with 12 men having run between 9.93 and 9.98 this year, including Britain’s Zharnel Hughes.

Before those boys take the track though, we have the fun and games of the preliminaries. Look out for the wonderfully named Don Motellang of the Marshall Islands, who has a PB of 12.46. Three women have run the same distance over hurdles faster than that this season.

An open 800m with Semenya absent

Another event missing its era-defining star is the women’s 800m, which gets underway with the heats at 3:10pm. South African star Caster Semenya has won 42 consecutive 800m races, a run stretching back to 2015, but will not compete at these championships because of new regulations that would require her to take hormone-suppressing medication.

American Ajee Wilson arrives as the fastest woman in the field, while Britain’s Lynsey Sharp is fourth fastest and chasing a first global medal at her third world championships.

Women’s marathon offers first gold

The first medals of these championships will be dished out late on Friday night. The women’s marathon is starting at midnight local time (10pm BST) to try avoid the worst of the Qatari heat.

Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich is the third fastest woman in history, having won the Dubai marathon in a time of 2:17:08 back in January. That’s more than two-and-a-half minutes faster than anyone else in the field has run this year, but championship marathons very rarely go to the form book.

Brit watch – Ben Williams

Williams will be looking to book his place in the triple jump final in qualifying at 5:25pm BST
Getty Images for European Athlet

Triple jumper Ben Williams has been one of the great successes of the British athletics season. After missing the entire 2018 season, the 27-year-old has returned in the form of his life, adding more than 50cm to his personal best so far this year. With a place in the world final on the line in qualifying, he could go bigger still.

And the rest…

One of the most dominant athletes in global sport will begin her quest for a third straight world high jump title. Russian Mariya Lasitskene, competing as an authorised neutral athlete, with her federation still banned, has been beaten just twice in the past three outdoor seasons, and matched her personal best of 2.06m earlier this year.

What could be the greatest 400m hurdles competition of all-time (though it might not even be the best 400m hurdles competition of the week), will also begin with Norway’s Karsten Warholm and the USA’s Rai Benjamin, ranked number two and three on the all-time list, expected to breeze through qualifying. If home favourite Abderrahman Samba – joint-third all-time – can find form after an injury-hit season, it could get even better.

Day one schedule

Time Event Sex Round
2:30pm Long jump M Qualification
2:35pm 100m M Preliminary
2:40pm Hammer throw W Qualification A
3:10pm 800m W Heats
3:30pm Pole vault W Qualification
4:05pm 100m M Heats
4:10pm Hammer throw W Qualification B
4:40pm High Jump W Qualification
4:55pm 3000m steeplechase W Heats
5:25pm Triple jump M Qualification
5:45pm 5000m M Heats
6:35pm 400m hurdles M Heats
9:59pm Marathon W Final

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