<p><br />In a year without any major international championships, world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri will experience the next-best thing when she takes to the start line for the 3000m at the <strong>Wanda Diamond League</strong> meeting in Doha on Friday (25).</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be like a championship race,&rdquo; she said when asked about the quality of the field.</p>
<p>In fact, it&rsquo;s arguably a higher standard than a championship race, because it brings together medallists in four different events from last year&rsquo;s World Championships and isn&rsquo;t limited to just three athletes per nation as would be the case at most championships.</p>
<p>World steeplechase champion Beatrice Chepkoech, world 5000m silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, world 10,000m bronze medallist Agnes Tirop and world 1500m bronze medallist Gudaf Tsegay are just some of the other standout names set to take part.<br /><br /></p>
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Hellen Obiri at the press conference ahead of the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>But Obiri, who won over 5000m at last month&rsquo;s Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco, feels confident.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I've trained well, and when I train well I have no doubts in a race,&rdquo; said the world cross-country champion. &ldquo;Whenever I line up for a race, I'm focused on doing my best. I don't feel the pressure. Maybe I'll do something special.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I've always enjoyed racing in Doha,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;In 2014 I set my PB over 3000m (8:20.68), and last year I won the World Championships here. I like racing here because it's favourable to me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Fellow Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot also has fond memories of Doha as it&rsquo;s where he won the world 1500m title in Doha last year. It&rsquo;s also, however, the scene of his last defeat, in May 2019.</p>
<p>He has won 16 consecutive races since then, but tomorrow&rsquo;s outing will be his first ever 800m race outside of Kenya.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I chose to do the 800m here because I wanted to test my speed endurance,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;All of my other races at 800m have been in Kenya, so I'm excited to do an 800m in the Diamond League.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I need to work on my speed endurance because it's an important part of 1500m running. Last year in Lausanne I ran the first 800m in 1:49 but still finished in 3:28.77, just outside my PB (3:28.41). I know I have endurance but I'm lacking a bit in my finishing speed, so that's what I want to work on.&rdquo;</p>
<p>His 2020 racing schedule hasn&rsquo;t been anywhere near as busy as it was last year, but Cheruiyot is grateful to have been able to get a few races under his belt.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This year has been different for everyone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In all of my races in 2020, I've only been focused on running. I feel blessed because I've been able to race. This will be my fourth race of the year and then from here I'll be going to Nairobi for the Continental Tour meeting.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
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Elaine Thompson at the press conference ahead of the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jamaica&rsquo;s double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah also expressed her gratitude and relief at being able to race on the Wanda Diamond League circuit.</p>
<p>She raced fairly regularly in low-key competitions in Kingston throughout July and August and then made it to Rome last week, where she won the 100m in a world-leading 10.85.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity to race in Rome and Doha,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I'd raced a few times in Jamaica but the level and intensity of competition wasn't the same.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was a little bit surprised with my run in Rome because I hadn't raced for a few weeks, but I knew I was capable of running fast because I'd put in the work.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Although 2020 has been an unusual year in many ways, Thompson-Herah says her racing and training experiences haven&rsquo;t changed too much.</p>
<p>&ldquo;As a sprinter, you have to learn to block everything else out anyway, so I've got used to racing in a stadium without any fans,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Nothing much has changed with my training. My coach is a genius, though, so I just do what he tells me to do.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
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Sam Kendricks at the press conference ahead of the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Two-time world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks, ever the optimist, has focused on the positives as he navigates his way through the testing season.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I'm just so grateful because meeting organisers have gone above and beyond to make sure competitions can happen,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It's been an adventure. We've all just kind of rolled with it this year, and that's been cool.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You get to put the whole world aside when you step on to the track,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;And when you're on it, time goes fast and the whole world melts away. Not that I don't care about the problems of the world, but they don't matter when you're standing there on the track. At that moment, it's all about how fast you can run or how high you can jump.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

In a year without any major international championships, world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri will experience the next-best thing when she takes to the start line for the 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on Friday (25).

Doha Diamond League Cheruiyot Obiri Thompson Kendricks

In Doha, world and Olympic champions prepare for memorable end to an unusual year

<p style="text-align: right;"><br /><em>updated 24 September</em></p>
<p>Callum Hawkins and Charlotte Purdue will head the British squad for the <strong>World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020</strong> on 17 October.</p>
<p>Hawkins, the the fourth place finisher in the marathon at last year's World Championships, clocked 1:00:01 at the Marugame Half Marathon in February, the fastest by a European this year. He'll be making his first appearance at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships since 2016 when he finished 15th.</p>
<p>Hawkins joins British U23 half marathon record-holder Jake Smith, who was third in 1:02:00 at the Vitality Big Half, and Mohamud Aadan, who finished 36th at the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships.</p>
<p>Like Hawkins, Purdue clocked her European lead of 1:08:23 in Marugame, finishing second. Purdue will be making her third World Half Marathon Championships appearance after finishing 33rd in 2016 and 21st in 2018.</p>
<p>Purdue is joined by Charlotte Arter, a teammate from 2018, who finished fifth at the Barcelona Half Marathon in February in a season&rsquo;s best 1:10:00. She too will be making a third consecutive appearance at these championships.</p>
<p>Samantha Harrison and Stephanie Davis, who notched personal bests of 1:11:01 and 1:11:15 when finishing second and third place at the Big Half, join Hayley Carruthers in being handed British debuts in Poland.</p>
<p>Kristian Jones, who clocked a personal best of 1:03:09 at February&rsquo;s Barcelona Half Marathon, and world trail bronze medallist Tom Evans, who lowered his PB to 1:03:15 in Antrim earlier this month, will also make their British debuts on the roads to round out the men's team.</p>
<p>"I am delighted that we are able to name such a strong team for the rescheduled World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, next month," said team leader Robert Hawkins.</p>
<p>"The team has been revised following athlete withdrawals from the original team named for March&rsquo;s championship, but I feel we have been able to add a good blend of international experience to those that are making their first appearances on the roads for Great Britain &amp; Northern Ireland."</p>
<h3>British team for Gdynia</h3>
<p>Men: Mohamud Aadan, Tom Evans, Callum Hawkins, Kristian Jones, Jake Smith</p>
<p>Women: Charlotte Arter, Hayley Carruthers, Stephanie Davis, Samantha Harrison, Charlotte Purdue</p>

Callum Hawkins and Charlotte Purdue will head the British squad for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.

British team roster 2020 World Half Marathon Championships

Hawkins and Purdue lead British squad for World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020

<p><br />Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Hailemaryam Kiros were victorious over 15km in Addis Ababa on Wednesday (23) in a race that Ethiopian Athletics will use as a form guide when selecting its team for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020.</p>
<p>African Games Half Marathon champion Yehualaw, like many athletes in this race, hadn&rsquo;t competed for several months because of the pandemic. Before today, her most recent races were back in February and March when she clocked a road 5km PB of 15:27 and ran 1:06:35 to finish fifth at the Ras al Khaimah Half Marathon.</p>
<p>The 21-year-old clearly hasn&rsquo;t lost any form since then, however, and she held off world half marathon champion Netsanet Gudeta to win in 50:15. Gudeta was a close second in 50:18.</p>
<p>Zeineba Yimer, who hadn&rsquo;t raced since clocking 2:19:46 on her marathon debut in Valencia in December last year, finished third in 50:30, nine seconds ahead of Ababel Yeshaneh, who earlier this year set a world half marathon record of 1:04:31.</p>
<p>Hailemaryam Kiros, the African U18 steeplechase silver medallist back in 2013, was a surprise winner of the men&rsquo;s race. He crossed the line in 42:59 to finish four seconds ahead of runner-up Andamlak Belihu, the two-time Delhi Half Marathon winner and World Championships 10,000m fifth-place finisher.</p>
<p>Amedework Walelegn, the 2017 world U20 cross-country silver medallist, finished just a stride behind Belihu and was given the same time for third place. Tokyo Marathon champion Birhanu Legese and 2017 Berlin Marathon runner-up Guye Adola were next to finish, clocking 43:20 and 43:36 respectively.</p>
<h3><br />Leading results</h3>
<p><strong>Men</strong><br /> 1 Hailemaryam Kiros 42:59<br /> 2 Andamlak Belihu 43:03<br /> 3 Amedework Walelegn 43:03<br /> 4 Birhanu Legese 43:20<br /> 5 Guye Adola 43:36<br /> 6 Leul Gebresilase 44:12</p>
<p><strong>Women</strong><br />1 Yalemzerf Yehualaw 50:15<br /> 2 Netsanet Gudeta 50:18<br /> 3 Zeineba Yimer 50:30<br /> 4 Ababel Yeshaneh 50:39<br /> 5 Sisay Meseret Gola 51:00<br /> 6 Medhin Beyene 51:15</p>

Yalemzerf Yehualaw and Hailemaryam Kiros were victorious over 15km in Addis Ababa on Wednesday (23) in a race that Ethiopian Athletics will use as a form guide when selecting its team for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020.

Ethiopia trial race World Half Yehualaw Kiros

Yehualaw and Kiros win Ethiopia’s trial race for Gdynia

<p><br />Athletics Canada has unveiled its team of four men and one woman for the <strong>World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020</strong> on 17 October.</p>
<p>Pan American 10,000m bronze medallist Rachel Cliff, former national record-holder in the marathon (2:26:56), heads to Gdynia with a half marathon PB of 1:10:06, set last December in Japan. She came within a few seconds of that mark in Houston earlier this year with 1:10:13.</p>
<p>&ldquo;After a spring and summer of race cancellations, I wasn&rsquo;t sure when I would have this opportunity again,&rdquo; Cliff said. &ldquo;Since March, we&rsquo;ve all had to make massive adaptations to our lives, and I think the World Half Marathon Championships will be a chance to get an understanding of what racing in this &lsquo;new normal&rsquo; will look like. Competing on the world stage has never been something I&rsquo;ve taken for granted, but I will appreciate it all the more this time round.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Trevor Hofbauer, who has earned early nomination for Canada&rsquo;s Olympic team in the marathon, has an official half marathon PB of 1:04:30, but recently ran a 1:03:02 time trial. Ben Presiner has the fastest official PB of the field with 1:02:57, set earlier this year. Justin Kent and Thomas Toth are Canada&rsquo;s other team members.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is obviously not your typical World Championships race,&rdquo; said Athletics Canada head coach Glenroy Gilbert. &ldquo;Everyone has had to adapt in a season without a lot of competitions. Our runners have put in a lot of miles to get to this race and it will be a good test of their physical and mental preparations. I&rsquo;m looking forward to seeing how they manage the race and I expect to see some good results.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Canadian team for Gdynia</h3>
<p><strong>Men:</strong> Trevor Hofbauer, Justin Kent, Benjamin Preisner, Thomas Toth</p>
<p><strong>Women:</strong> Rachel Cliff</p>

Athletics Canada has unveiled its team of four men and one woman for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.

World Half Gdynia 2020 Canadian team

Canada names team for World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020

<p><br />It may have been a far-from-normal season, but the <strong>Wanda Diamond League</strong> will end on a high in Doha on Friday (25) with what is quite possibly the deepest line-up seen in any discipline this year.</p>
<p>A loaded 3000m field will bring down the curtain in the Qatari capital, featuring a clash between world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri and world steeplechase champion Beatrice Chepkoech. In fact, five medallists from four different disciplines at last year&rsquo;s World Championships will be back in action in Doha &ndash; and even then, that only scratches the surface of the quality of the field.</p>
<p>Obiri opened her outdoor campaign in Monaco last month, winning the 5000m in a world-leading 14:22.12, just four seconds shy of her Kenyan record. She has fond memories of Doha, too, as it is where she set a Kenyan 3000m record of 8:20.68 in 2014, following it with victories over 3000m at Doha&rsquo;s Diamond League meeting last year and over 5000m at the World Championships at the same venue.</p>
<p>Chepkoech also opened her outdoor season in Monaco, clocking 14:55.01 for 5000m, and she followed it with a 9:10.07 run for second place in the steeplechase at the Continental Tour meeting in Berlin earlier this month. The steeplechase world record-holder is one of four women in the field with a PB inside 8:30.</p>
<p>Other athletes in the field who stood on the podium in Doha last year include 5000m silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, 10,000m bronze medallist and 2015 world cross-country champion Agnes Tirop, and 1500m bronze medallist Gudaf Tsegay.</p>
<p>In fact, all 16 women in the field own a medal from a global or continental championship, or hold a world or continental record. The quality is such that they all deserve a mention: 2015 world steeplechase champion Hyvin Kiyeng, world U18 champion Lemlem Hailu, world U20 champion Beatrice Chebet, African Games 10,000m champion Tsehay Gemechu, African 1500m champion Winny Chebet, African Games 1500m champion Quailyne Jebiwott Kiprop, European 5000m silver medallist Eilish McColgan, European 1500m bronze medallist Laura Weightman, European indoor bronze medallist Melissa Courtney-Bryant, and Oceania record-holders Genevieve Gregson and Jessica Hull.</p>
<p>Mondo Duplantis will also aim to end his year on a high &ndash; quite literally &ndash; when he lines up for his final pole vault competition of the year.<br /><br /></p>
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Mondo Duplantis in action at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The 20-year-old from Sweden has enjoyed a dream season, setting world records of 6.17m and 6.18m indoors and maintaining a winning streak throughout the whole of 2020. His latest victory was a 6.15m clearance &ndash; the highest outdoor vault in history &ndash; at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome last week.</p>
<p>If he&rsquo;s feeling good, he may well decide to take an attempt at a would-be world record height of 6.19m, though Duplantis himself would be quick to point out that records are by no means a certainty every time he sets foot on the runway.</p>
<p>His main goal will be to keep his winning streak intact, which in itself will be no easy task as he takes on two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and 2012 Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie.</p>
<h3>Mouth-watering middle-distance clashes</h3>
<p>It&rsquo;s not just the women&rsquo;s 3000m that will bring together some of the world&rsquo;s best across a range of disciplines; the men&rsquo;s 1500m has attracted world and Olympic medallists from the steeplechase and 5000m.</p>
<p>World and Olympic steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto will make his season debut in what will be his first 1500m race in five years. The 25-year-old Kenyan will be joined by his two fellow medallists from last year&rsquo;s World Championships, Ethiopia&rsquo;s Lamecha Girma and Morocco&rsquo;s Soufiane El Bakkali, who have set PBs this year of 3:35.67 and 3:34.51 respectively. Kipruto may have proven time and again that he is the best over the barriers, but this is a test to see who has the greatest foot speed.<br /><br /></p>
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Conseslus Kipruto winning the 3000m steeplechase at the Diamond League meeting in Doha</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ethiopia&rsquo;s Selemon Barega, the world 5000m silver medallist, will also step down in distance in a bid to improve on his recent PB of 3:36.07. Australia&rsquo;s Stewart McSweyn, fresh from setting an Oceanian 3000m record in Rome, has the fastest season&rsquo;s best of the field (3:31.48) and will be a formidable opponent.</p>
<p>The 1500m will be without world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, because he too is stepping down in distance. The Kenyan will contest the 800m, where he&rsquo;ll line up against world bronze medallist Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich, World Championships fourth-place finisher Bryce Hoppel, 2016 European bronze medallist Elliot Giles, Pan American silver medallist Wesley Vazquez and Australian duo Peter Bol and Joseph Deng.</p>
<p>Cheruiyot has been undefeated since May 2019, but this will be his first 800m race for more than a year, whereas almost everyone else in the field has sharpened up over two laps and arrive in Doha with sub-1:45 season&rsquo;s bests.<br /><br /></p>
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Timothy Cheruiyot wins the 1500m at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon is another athlete who heads to Doha off the back of an unbeaten run, and she too will move down in distance. The 26-year-old Kenyan has notched up two victories over 1000m this year, producing two of the five fastest times in history with her 2:29.15 run in Monaco and 2:29.92 win in Brussels. She followed it with a dominant 3:59.05 run over 1500m, her specialist distance, at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava.</p>
<p>Friday&rsquo;s race will be her first 800m outing in five years, but her two-lap splits from Monaco (1:59.7) and Brussels (1:59.2) suggest she&rsquo;s ready to run fast and could even challenge her PB of 1:58.02.</p>
<p>Uganda&rsquo;s Winnie Nanyondo, the fourth-place finisher at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, and 2013 world champion Eunice Sum will also line up for the 800m.</p>
<h3>Thompson-Herah looks to level the score with Ta Lou</h3>
<p>Double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and multiple world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou will renew their rivalry in what will be their fourth clash in Doha.</p>
<p>Thompson-Herah won their first Doha duel back in 2017, winning the 200m in 22.19, but Ivorian Ta Lou gained revenge over 100m one year later, winning in 10.85. Their third clash in the Qatari capital came at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, where Ta Lou finished third in the 100m, one place ahead of the Jamaican.<br /><br /></p>
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Dafne Schippers, Elaine Thompson and Marie-Josee Ta Lou in action at the Diamond League meeting in Doha</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Following her world-leading 10.85 in Rome &ndash; where Ta Lou placed third in 11.14 &ndash; Thompson-Herah will start as the 100m favourite in Doha on Friday. US duo Aleia Hobbs and Kayla White should also feature at the top end of the race.</p>
<p>Long jumpers Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk and Ese Brume will also square off again in what will be their first outdoor clash since last year&rsquo;s World Championships, where one centimetre separated their podium places.</p>
<p>Ukraine&rsquo;s Bekh-Romanchuk, the world silver medallist, has been extremely consistent this year, finishing first or second in all of her competitions, indoors and out. Brume, meanwhile, will be making her 2020 outdoor debut; her last competition was in Lievin in February, where she set an indoor PB of 6.82m.</p>
<p>Sweden&rsquo;s Khaddi Sagnia, who recently set an outdoor PB of 6.92m in Zagreb, will also be a tough opponent.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, in-form French hurdler Wilhem Belocian will take on USA&rsquo;s Freddie Crittenden and Aaron Mallet in the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles. Britain&rsquo;s Cindy Ofili and USA&rsquo;s Payton Chadwick appear closely matched in the women&rsquo;s sprint hurdles with just 0.01 separating their season&rsquo;s bests.</p>
<p>Fresh from some strong performances over 100m (10.04) and 150m (15.15), Ivory Coast&rsquo;s Arthur Cisse will step up to the 200m, where he will face Olympic bronze medallist Christophe Lemaitre. Kuwait&rsquo;s Asian champion Yousef Karam will start as the fastest man this year in the 400m, but USA&rsquo;s Kahmari Montgomery is also running into good form.</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

It may have been a far-from-normal season, but the Wanda Diamond League will end on a high in Doha on Friday (25) with what is quite possibly the deepest line-up seen in any discipline this year.

Diamond League Doha Obiri Duplantis Thompson Kipruto

Loaded 3000m line-up for Doha as 2020 Wanda Diamond League set to go out on a high

Here is a round-up of updates relating to international competitions, from cancellations to postponements and confirmations.


Last update: 23 September
Here is a round-up of updates relating to international competitions, from cancellations to postponements and confirmations.
This page covers announcements made since the start of July. Up until the end of June, most other significant announcements were incorporated into our 'new normal' reporting pages.
If you're a competition organiser and have news to share regarding the staging of your event, please share it with us.
 20km de Paris (11 Oct 2020) - virtual
The mass race in the French capital will now be held as a virtual event. Runners are encouraged to sign up via the event website and log their effort between 8-11 October using a fitness tracking app.More information
 European Cross Country Championships (13 Dec 2020) - cancelled
European Athletics has confirmed the cancellation of the European Cross Country Championships that was due to take place in Dublin, Ireland, on 13 December. As a part of an Executive Board meeting held in Lausanne, European Athletics spoke with the Fingal-Dublin 2020 local organising committee concerning the current Covid-19 situation in Ireland and the impact that this may have on the 2020 European Cross Country Championships. It soon became clear that, due to the overall uncertainty on hosting mass sporting events, the existing sanitary restrictions in Ireland, and the travel restrictions imposed across Europe due to the coronavirus pandemic, it would not be possible to host the event as scheduled.Announcement (9 September)
 Valencia Marathon (6 Dec 2020) - cancelled
"The Trinidad Alfonso EDP Valencia Marathon Organisation, run by SD Correcaminos and the Valencia City Council, regrets having to make the decision to cancel the 40th edition of the popular race, scheduled for the 6th of December. The Organisation of the event tried to exhaust all options in order to hold the event in a safe way for all runners, but the development of the health situation due to COVID-19 and the uncertainty of the near future are forcing us to forgo hosting the 30,000 participants that bought all bibs out for the 2020 edition."Announcement (7 September)
 World Mountain Running Championships (13-14 Nov 2020) - cancelled
"Together with our friends in the organisation team (Arista events), the local Haria government on Lanzarote and the Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), we have decided that this is the best action to take. It is regrettable that our mountain running community and family can not meet and share the experiences together that we have grown to love over the past 36 years of WMRA competitions."Announcement (4 September)
 Meeting Città di Padova (12 Sep 2020) - cancelled
"With the impossibility of guaranteeing a competition programme with the presence of a sufficient number of international athletes, due to the global continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are forced to cancel the event."Announcement (31 August)
 Amsterdam Marathon (18 Oct 2020) - cancelled
"The 45th edition of the TCS Amsterdam Marathon scheduled for Sunday 18 October 2020 has been cancelled. Despite the significantly modified programme, the Municipality of Amsterdam has decided not to grant a permit to the organiser, Le Champion, in light of the rising numbers of coronavirus infections in the capital. The international nature of the marathon and increasingly complex travel options have also been deciding factors behind the decision."Announcement (21 August)
 IAU 50km World Championships (27 Nov 2020) - cancelled
"Following the development of the coronavirus situation in Jordan and across the region, it is with regret that we have to inform you of the cancellation of the 2020 IAU 50 km World Championships that was planned for 27th November in Aqaba, Jordan."Announcement (15 August)
 Marathon des Alpes Maritimes Nice-Cannes (29 Nov 2020) - cancelled
"Unfortunately, after having tried everything to keep the race going, we find ourselves obliged to cancel the 2020 edition of the Marathon des Alpes Maritimes Nice-Cannes. To stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic which is currently affecting France, the Mayor of Nice, Christian ESTROSI has just decided to cancel the sporting events which bring together more than 300 competitors scheduled in Nice on the calendar for this end of year 2020."Announcement (15 August)
 Paris Marathon (15 Nov 2020) - cancelled
"Faced with the difficulty that many runners, especially those coming from abroad, had in making themselves available for the 14th / 15th November, it was decided that it would be better and simpler for those concerned if we organised the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris in 2021."Announcement (12 August)
 Frankfurt Marathon (25 Oct 2020) - cancelled
The race organisers have decided to cancel the Mainova Frankfurt Marathon 2020. The 39th edition of Germany’s oldest city marathon was to have taken place on 25 October. "We have not taken this step of cancellation lightly and have done our utmost to find solutions and alternatives," says race director Jo Schindler. "Now we have to face the cold reality that cancellation is inevitable."Announcement(11 August)
 Nairobi Continental Tour Gold Meeting (3 Oct 2020) - rescheduled
The Kip Keino Classic, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting which was moved to 26 September, was rescheduled once again and will take place on 3 October.
 Doha Diamond League (25 Sep 2020) - rescheduled
The 2020 Wanda Diamond League today announced a further change to its 2020 calendar, with the date for the Doha Diamond League brought forward by around a fortnight. The fifth meeting of the season was scheduled for 9 October after it could not be held as the traditional season opener in April, but will now take place instead on 25 September.The plan is to stage 12 disciplines. A list of athletes who will compete in the Qatari capital will be announced in due course.Annoucement(3 August)
 Valencia Half Marathon 2020 - cancelled
The 2020 Medio Marathon Valencia Trinidad Alfonso EDP, scheduled for Sunday 25 October has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. In a statement, the organisers said: "SD Correcaminos (running club), the organiser of the Valencia Half-Marathon Trinidad Alfonso EDP, after fully appraising the health situation and consulting all the authorities involved, hereby announces the cancellation of the 30th edition of the race. The results of the appraisal and consultation showed that it was impossible to go ahead with the race, which was scheduled for the 25th of October 2020."Announcement(30 July)
 Great Ethiopian Run (15 Nov 2020) - postponed
"The 20th edition of TOTAL Great Ethiopian Run International 10km was scheduled to be held on 15 November 2020. However, due to the current situation of Covid-19, we are forced to postpone the race. We will announce the new date on a later date. Please bear with us while we work through the details to deliver the 20th edition of our flagship race."Announcement(27 July)
 Nanjing Continental Tour Gold Meeting 2020 - cancelled
Following the decision taken by China's National Administration of Sports to suspend all international sporting events until next year, organisers of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Nanjing have announced that the competition will not go ahead this year.Announcement(25 July)
 Shanghai Diamond League (19 Sep 2020) - cancelled
Following the decision taken by the National Administration of Sports to suspend all international sporting events until next year, we are sorry to announce that the 2020 Shanghai Diamond League will not go ahead as planned on 19th September. The meeting will return next year, taking its traditional place as one of the early-season events in the Diamond League calendar.Announcement(24 July)
 Müller Grand Prix, Gateshead (12 Sep 2020) - cancelled
The Wanda Diamond League today announced a further change to its 2020 calendar. The Müller Grand Prix in Gateshead, UK, scheduled for 12 September to have been the fifth competitive meeting of the season, has been cancelled.Announcement(23 July)
 ISTAF (13 Sep 2020) - confirmed
“With 3500 spectators instead of 45,000, the ISTAF will certainly be different this time, but it may be a first small step back to normal," said meeting director Martin Seeber. "We want to set an example for sport and be a beacon for athletics."Announcement (21 July)
 Hamburg Marathon (13 Sep 2020) - cancelled
Major sporting events in Hamburg, which have been postponed until late summer and autumn 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic that has been raging since spring 2020, will no longer take place this year, but will be postponed until 2021.Announcement (21 July)
 Madrid Half Marathon (4 Oct 2020) - cancelled
"The organisation of the Movistar Madrid Half Marathon and the ProFuturo Race announce the cancellation of the 2020 edition, originally scheduled for 29 March and which, due to the coronavirus health emergency, was postponed to 4 October. The circumstances are still not ideal for the celebration of these two sporting events with a joint participation of close to 20,000 people, and the prospect for the coming months does not offer security guarantees for participants, spectators, volunteers and the organisation team either."Announcement (21 July)
 Rotterdam Marathon (24-25 Oct 2020) - postponed
"With pain in our hearts we have decided to reschedule the event due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The NN Marathon Rotterdam is now scheduled to take place on the 10th and 11th of April 2021. Every individual runner with a place in the 2020 edition will be able to use their place in the rescheduled event."Announcement (20 July)
 Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon (7 Feb 2021) - cancelled
"The 75th anniversary running of the Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon scheduled for 7 February 2021 will not take place. After careful consideration we determined that, with no visible end to the coronavirus crisis in sight, for the health and safety of participants, volunteers, staff, medical and rescue personnel, fans along the course and everyone else involved with our event, our 75th running must be postponed for one year."Announcement (20 July)
 Meeting Liege (9 Sep 2020) - cancelled
"There will be no 19th edition of the Meeting International d'Athlétisme de la Province de Liège this year. The applicable corona measures meant it is not possible to organise the event properly later this summer. The 19th edition can take place in July 2021 and we are also looking forward to the 20th anniversary of this international event in 2022."Announcement (16 July)
 Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2022 - postponed
Senegal and the International Olympic Committee have mutually agreed to postpone the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2022 to 2026. This postponement meets the requirement of responsibility and the concern for efficiency imposed by current circumstances.Announcement (15 July)
 Great Birmingham Run (11 Oct 2020) - cancelled
"There’s no option to stage the event as planned, or at a later date in the year."Announcement (15 July)
 Chicago Marathon (11 Oct 2020) - cancelled
Event organisers and the City of Chicago announced the decision to cancel the 2020 Bank of America Chicago Marathon and all race weekend activities in response to the ongoing public health concerns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.Announcement (13 July)
 Toronto Marathon (18 Oct 2020) - cancelled
Working closely with the City of Toronto and Mayor John Tory, event organisers Canada Running Series have made the decision to cancel the event due to Covid-19 related health and safety concerns. "We are pleased to announce that we will be transitioning to a virtual event this year, to continue to offer the best possible running and fundraising goals in these challenging times."Announcement (13 July)
 Athens Authentic Marathon (8 Nov 2020) - confirmed
In accordance with the Protocol for Road Races approved by the Health Committee of the General Secretariat of Sports for Sports and the Ministry of Sports, SEGAS (Hellenic Athletics Federation) and its partners have taken up further actions and announce today that, given the current circumstances, the 2020 Athens Marathon will be staged as planned on 7-8 November 2020.Announcement (13 July)
 Seiko Golden Grand Prix Tokyo (23 Aug 2020) - postponed
Originally set to take place on 10 May, the Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – will now be held on Sunday 23 August. “Only domestic athletes will participate,” read a statement on the meeting’s website. “We are also considering allowing high school athletes to play a role. Details will be announced once they are confirmed.”Announcement (13 July)
 

International competitions cancellation postponements 2020

Competition updates

<p><br />Luckily, Koen Naert has the habit of writing things down.</p>
<p>As he sat &ndash; socially distanced, naturally &ndash; outside the meeting hotel for the Brussels Wanda Diamond League meeting in September, he smiled ruefully as he reflected on just how valuable this quirk is to him.</p>
<p>Fingers crossed, and further Covid-19 complications permitting, Belgium&rsquo;s 31-year-old European marathon champion will have the opportunity to take part in his first race in almost a year when he participates at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Luckily I am always writing everything down so if something goes good I write it down, for you will never know if you forget, so I am glad I wrote everything down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So I have to read everything again because after 11 months it&rsquo;s started fading away! So I am happy I can find it&hellip;</p>
<p>&ldquo;These championships will be very important. I think it will be difficult for me to be in 100% optimal condition, because I need some other races to race a fast half marathon, so I need some 10km races to really hit the wall, and then I really can dig deep in a half marathon.</p>
<p>&ldquo;And so I miss those other competitions, I think physically, but also mentally because, in the beginning you say &lsquo;Oh, we will train base, because there are no competitions. A good base level is enough&rsquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;But if you have base level for four months, maybe you want to start to dig a little deeper, so I think the World Half Marathon Championships are perfect mid-goal for that.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It will be good mentally for me, too, because I think that when I race in Gdynia it will be 11 months without competition, so when I was thinking about racing I really got excited and I really had to think deep like, &lsquo;Oh, how did I do it again?&rsquo;&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div id="5f68ccee999722175c364dad" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/273fb4bf-15f5-4023-a061-54494e6ac19e.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Naert, whose unexpected victory at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin was followed by a personal best of 2:07:39 at the following year&rsquo;s Rotterdam Marathon, admits that preparations for the championships, which were shifted from their original date of 29 March because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have been &ldquo;very difficult&rdquo;.</p>
<p>Originally, he explained, he had targeted the Valencia Half Marathon, set on a course conducive to fast times. But when that was cancelled he went back to the Belgian Athletics Federation &ndash; which helps fund his support team along with his kit sponsor, Asics &ndash; and asked them: &ldquo;Is it too late to run in Gdynia?&rdquo;</p>
<p>It wasn&rsquo;t. So Naert now has a focus, albeit one for which he has prepared in a way he would never have envisaged a year ago. Earlier in 2020, Naert had spoken of running 200 kilometres a week, but that target was soon modified.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Not in Covid-19 times,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I was actually doing 140, 150km a week, because I knew there weren&rsquo;t any competitions in the near future. If you are in April or May, I can&rsquo;t remember when the European Championships got cancelled, but if you know they will be cancelled for August, and you are three months away from that, you don&rsquo;t have to peak in that period.</p>
<p>&ldquo;So I decided with my coach, Raymond Van Paemel, that I would work on other points and take another shot next year for the Olympics. I didn&rsquo;t take a rest or anything, but I took it a little bit easier so that the body had more time to recover because since 2017 all the marathons and races I did were great, but my body was glad it had a few months to reload actually.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t be ideal for 2020, but I think that 2020 is already lost for us on the road. So we gambled and we are aiming for a fantastic 2021.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rry_TNgKngo" width="500" height="280" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />That, though, has taken a considerable amount of mental adjustment on his part.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think the most difficult part in the beginning was, OK you had competitions that were cancelled and you say, &lsquo;OK, championships are still far away&rsquo;,&rdquo; he reflected. &ldquo;But then first was the Olympics that was postponed. So you say, &lsquo;OK, this is bad.&rsquo; Then you refocus, and for me that was the European Championships in Paris. Then they got cancelled.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Because it started to get mentally a little bit tougher to really restart and do all the things again, we decided to choose other objectives, goals, than competition. We decided to make physical goals, like: &lsquo;I want to get rid of this little pain&rsquo;, or &lsquo;this is my weak point in running.&rsquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;So we really took goals that were my own, that can&rsquo;t get cancelled or postponed, and it worked quite well. I had some achilles tendon problems I first wanted to get rid of. That worked out.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We made a big progression and I feel now in a short period that my condition is really growing and now I can look forward to competing again.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Because it was not 100 per cent sure if the World Half Marathon Championships would go ahead, but I think there is a good chance now if they can organise a Tour de France for three weeks, I think a one-day race is possible as well, so that gives me some mental strength to work towards that goal.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div id="5f687ba8999722175c364da4" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/fd38b4d4-8c34-40e4-9287-a563984c070d.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Koen Naert on his way to winning the European marathon title in Berlin</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Once the Belgian government brought in social restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Naert settled into a working routine at his home base. His wife, Elise, who works for the region of West Flanders, was able to work from home, and they were able to swap in around looking after their three-year-old son, Finn.</p>
<p>When Koen would do his main running session between nine and eleven in the morning, Elise would sit in. Then Daddy would take over, until his afternoon recovery session, which often involved no more than travelling to the garage, in which he has a treadmill and a static bike.</p>
<p>Then he would prepare the evening meal as Elise worked on later to make up for her earlier gaps.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We were pretty lucky in Belgium because we really didn&rsquo;t have to stay in the house 24/7 like in Spain or Italy,&rdquo; he reflected. &ldquo;I had the chance to go outside. I couldn&rsquo;t run with others, but I was already very glad I didn&rsquo;t have to stay inside.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We have a canal next to our house, and we also have a lot of forests near us. I couldn&rsquo;t take the car, because we weren&rsquo;t allowed to drive to other places. But from my house I had different routes I could run. I never had any motivational problem.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div id="5f687b5f999722175c364da3" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/0de192cc-adda-4751-90f2-f7419fae327b.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Koen Naert in action in the marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Assisting Koen in this respect has been his mental coach, Eva Maenhout. Referring to the coronavirus crisis, he recalled: &ldquo;In the beginning you feel strong and everything goes OK and it&rsquo;s not going to take that long. But if you look, it started in March. We are in September now and we are still dealing with the problem.</p>
<p>&ldquo;So I am really glad Eva joined me at this time. We have had a lot of good conversations because, like I said, it will be 11 months without racing and, sometimes you start doubting. Like &ndash; &lsquo;Can I still do it? It&rsquo;s been 11 months. I don&rsquo;t have the races before like I used to have. How will I react?&rsquo; She has always been there to support me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Asked if he knew about any other runners he would be facing in Gdynia, he responded in the negative. When a colleague brightly informed him that Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda&rsquo;s newly installed world 5000m record-holder, had confirmed his participation, Naert&rsquo;s face became a picture of conflicting emotion.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; he said with a pained grin. &ldquo;Ah! That will hurt!&rdquo;</p>
<p>Had another topic for conversation with Eva just suggested itself?</p>
<p>&ldquo;Actually yes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Because I was really convinced that I could win medals at European level, and actually now I still doubt that fact at world-class level, to be honest about that, because I still have a lot of work to do.</p>
<p>&ldquo;And I really have to peak for my performance, and I know that. And that&rsquo;s why I sometimes can suck in other races. I know that! But I need those races to be at my top level when I really want to be.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The difficulties Naert has encountered during the ever-shifting coronavirus circumstances of the past year has been compounded by another profound dilemma. He is a professional athlete. He is also a trained nurse.</p>
<p>He took time out from his nursing career to prepare for the Rio 2016 Olympics &ndash; where he finished 22nd in the marathon &ndash; but the Brussels bombings of 11 March 2016 saw him answering an emergency call to help, calling on his experience at a burn care centre.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="5f687abd999722175c364da2" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/21453545-a77a-430d-b2f3-37a1a209f4f0.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I had never taken my work home &ndash; until then,&rdquo; <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://spikes.worldathletics.org/post/koen-naert-heroes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he told Spikes earlier this year</a></strong></span>.</p>
<p>&ldquo;After the attacks, my mind was all over the place, so I can empathise with what so many nurses are going through now.&rdquo;</p>
<p>While his name remains on a &lsquo;reserve list&rsquo;, however, his first instinct that he would have to be ready to help with the Covid-19 pandemic has been checked by other counsel.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When the Olympic Games got postponed, I got national television coming by and they didn&rsquo;t talk about it before and it was quite a deep conversation, and suddenly he was asking &lsquo;Will you go help them out in the hospitals?&rsquo;&rdquo; he recalled.</p>
<p>&ldquo;And my first reaction was, &lsquo;Yes of course. I am a nurse. I will, if we have situations like in Spain or Italy, where the country is really in panic, yes, I am a nurse here in my heart, not only on paper. So yes I will go out and help them&hellip;&rsquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;But then the doctor from the Olympic Committee said &lsquo;Think twice before you go, because it&rsquo;s not just the flu.&rsquo; He was mentioning the SARS virus in Asia, 95% of the infections with SARS they had mutations in their lungs, and he said we don&rsquo;t know yet for Covid-19, but if you get contaminated and you have mutations in your lungs that can be the difference between being a good amateur runner and being an Olympian.</p>
<p>&ldquo;And I didn&rsquo;t forget that, and I started really thinking about the fact that I am a professional athlete, I have my responsibilities as an athlete, so I am not going to help that quick any more as I said in the beginning. And that&rsquo;s the hard part &ndash; because I had to choose between being the nurse that I have been for years, with all my heart, and being a professional athlete.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was really, really doubting, and my coach said &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t do it, don&rsquo;t do it, because it can affect your career.&rsquo; That period was hard. I was glad Eva was there at that time&hellip;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want my athletics career to get stopped or affected because I just wanted to go and help and at that moment it wasn&rsquo;t my job. I am paid to be a professional athlete so I have my responsibilities. And that hurts, if you see that they need help.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics</strong></p>

Luckily, Koen Naert has the habit of writing things down.


Luckily, Koen Naert has the habit of writing things down.
As he sat – socially distanced, naturally – outside the meeting hotel for the Brussels Wanda Diamond League meeting in September, he smiled ruefully as he reflected on just how valuable this quirk is to him.
Fingers crossed, and further Covid-19 complications permitting, Belgium’s 31-year-old European marathon champion will have the opportunity to take part in his first race in almost a year when he participates at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.
“Luckily I am always writing everything down so if something goes good I write it down, for you will never know if you forget, so I am glad I wrote everything down,” he said. “So I have to read everything again because after 11 months it’s started fading away! So I am happy I can find it…
“These championships will be very important. I think it will be difficult for me to be in 100% optimal condition, because I need some other races to race a fast half marathon, so I need some 10km races to really hit the wall, and then I really can dig deep in a half marathon.
“And so I miss those other competitions, I think physically, but also mentally because, in the beginning you say ‘Oh, we will train base, because there are no competitions. A good base level is enough’.
“But if you have base level for four months, maybe you want to start to dig a little deeper, so I think the World Half Marathon Championships are perfect mid-goal for that.
“It will be good mentally for me, too, because I think that when I race in Gdynia it will be 11 months without competition, so when I was thinking about racing I really got excited and I really had to think deep like, ‘Oh, how did I do it again?’” 
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert
 
Naert, whose unexpected victory at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin was followed by a personal best of 2:07:39 at the following year’s Rotterdam Marathon, admits that preparations for the championships, which were shifted from their original date of 29 March because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have been “very difficult”.
Originally, he explained, he had targeted the Valencia Half Marathon, set on a course conducive to fast times. But when that was cancelled he went back to the Belgian Athletics Federation – which helps fund his support team along with his kit sponsor, Asics – and asked them: “Is it too late to run in Gdynia?”
It wasn’t. So Naert now has a focus, albeit one for which he has prepared in a way he would never have envisaged a year ago. Earlier in 2020, Naert had spoken of running 200 kilometres a week, but that target was soon modified.
“Not in Covid-19 times,” he said. “I think I was actually doing 140, 150km a week, because I knew there weren’t any competitions in the near future. If you are in April or May, I can’t remember when the European Championships got cancelled, but if you know they will be cancelled for August, and you are three months away from that, you don’t have to peak in that period.
“So I decided with my coach, Raymond Van Paemel, that I would work on other points and take another shot next year for the Olympics. I didn’t take a rest or anything, but I took it a little bit easier so that the body had more time to recover because since 2017 all the marathons and races I did were great, but my body was glad it had a few months to reload actually.
“It wouldn’t be ideal for 2020, but I think that 2020 is already lost for us on the road. So we gambled and we are aiming for a fantastic 2021.”

That, though, has taken a considerable amount of mental adjustment on his part.
“I think the most difficult part in the beginning was, OK you had competitions that were cancelled and you say, ‘OK, championships are still far away’,” he reflected. “But then first was the Olympics that was postponed. So you say, ‘OK, this is bad.’ Then you refocus, and for me that was the European Championships in Paris. Then they got cancelled.
“Because it started to get mentally a little bit tougher to really restart and do all the things again, we decided to choose other objectives, goals, than competition. We decided to make physical goals, like: ‘I want to get rid of this little pain’, or ‘this is my weak point in running.’
“So we really took goals that were my own, that can’t get cancelled or postponed, and it worked quite well. I had some achilles tendon problems I first wanted to get rid of. That worked out.
“We made a big progression and I feel now in a short period that my condition is really growing and now I can look forward to competing again.
“Because it was not 100 per cent sure if the World Half Marathon Championships would go ahead, but I think there is a good chance now if they can organise a Tour de France for three weeks, I think a one-day race is possible as well, so that gives me some mental strength to work towards that goal.” 
Koen Naert on his way to winning the European marathon title in Berlin
 
Once the Belgian government brought in social restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Naert settled into a working routine at his home base. His wife, Elise, who works for the region of West Flanders, was able to work from home, and they were able to swap in around looking after their three-year-old son, Finn.
When Koen would do his main running session between nine and eleven in the morning, Elise would sit in. Then Daddy would take over, until his afternoon recovery session, which often involved no more than travelling to the garage, in which he has a treadmill and a static bike.
Then he would prepare the evening meal as Elise worked on later to make up for her earlier gaps.
“We were pretty lucky in Belgium because we really didn’t have to stay in the house 24/7 like in Spain or Italy,” he reflected. “I had the chance to go outside. I couldn’t run with others, but I was already very glad I didn’t have to stay inside.
“We have a canal next to our house, and we also have a lot of forests near us. I couldn’t take the car, because we weren’t allowed to drive to other places. But from my house I had different routes I could run. I never had any motivational problem.” 
Koen Naert in action in the marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games
 
Assisting Koen in this respect has been his mental coach, Eva Maenhout. Referring to the coronavirus crisis, he recalled: “In the beginning you feel strong and everything goes OK and it’s not going to take that long. But if you look, it started in March. We are in September now and we are still dealing with the problem.
“So I am really glad Eva joined me at this time. We have had a lot of good conversations because, like I said, it will be 11 months without racing and, sometimes you start doubting. Like – ‘Can I still do it? It’s been 11 months. I don’t have the races before like I used to have. How will I react?’ She has always been there to support me.”
Asked if he knew about any other runners he would be facing in Gdynia, he responded in the negative. When a colleague brightly informed him that Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda’s newly installed world 5000m record-holder, had confirmed his participation, Naert’s face became a picture of conflicting emotion.
“Oh!” he said with a pained grin. “Ah! That will hurt!”
Had another topic for conversation with Eva just suggested itself?
“Actually yes,” he said. “Because I was really convinced that I could win medals at European level, and actually now I still doubt that fact at world-class level, to be honest about that, because I still have a lot of work to do.
“And I really have to peak for my performance, and I know that. And that’s why I sometimes can suck in other races. I know that! But I need those races to be at my top level when I really want to be.”
The difficulties Naert has encountered during the ever-shifting coronavirus circumstances of the past year has been compounded by another profound dilemma. He is a professional athlete. He is also a trained nurse.
He took time out from his nursing career to prepare for the Rio 2016 Olympics – where he finished 22nd in the marathon – but the Brussels bombings of 11 March 2016 saw him answering an emergency call to help, calling on his experience at a burn care centre. 
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert
 
“I had never taken my work home – until then,” he told Spikes earlier this year.
“After the attacks, my mind was all over the place, so I can empathise with what so many nurses are going through now.”
While his name remains on a ‘reserve list’, however, his first instinct that he would have to be ready to help with the Covid-19 pandemic has been checked by other counsel.
“When the Olympic Games got postponed, I got national television coming by and they didn’t talk about it before and it was quite a deep conversation, and suddenly he was asking ‘Will you go help them out in the hospitals?’” he recalled.
“And my first reaction was, ‘Yes of course. I am a nurse. I will, if we have situations like in Spain or Italy, where the country is really in panic, yes, I am a nurse here in my heart, not only on paper. So yes I will go out and help them…’
“But then the doctor from the Olympic Committee said ‘Think twice before you go, because it’s not just the flu.’ He was mentioning the SARS virus in Asia, 95% of the infections with SARS they had mutations in their lungs, and he said we don’t know yet for Covid-19, but if you get contaminated and you have mutations in your lungs that can be the difference between being a good amateur runner and being an Olympian.
“And I didn’t forget that, and I started really thinking about the fact that I am a professional athlete, I have my responsibilities as an athlete, so I am not going to help that quick any more as I said in the beginning. And that’s the hard part – because I had to choose between being the nurse that I have been for years, with all my heart, and being a professional athlete.
“I was really, really doubting, and my coach said ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, because it can affect your career.’ That period was hard. I was glad Eva was there at that time…
“I don’t want my athletics career to get stopped or affected because I just wanted to go and help and at that moment it wasn’t my job. I am paid to be a professional athlete so I have my responsibilities. And that hurts, if you see that they need help.”
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

Koen Naert Belgium World Half Marathon Gdynia

Naert sets sights on Gdynia for return to competitive action

<p><br />World 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and world 3000m leader Jacob Kiplimo are among the athletes selected to represent Uganda at the <strong>World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020</strong> on 17 October.</p>
<p>Cheptegei, the world cross-country champion, broke the world 5000m record at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco last month with 12:35.36 and is targeting a tilt on the 10,000m mark on 7 October before heading to Poland.</p>
<p>Kiplimo, meanwhile, won the 5000m at the World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Ostrava with a PB of 12:48.63 and then went on to triumph over 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome in a world-leading 7:26.64, breaking the Ugandan record and becoming the fastest teenager in history for the distance.</p>
<p>Given their exploits on the track in recent months, Cheptegei and Kiplimo will be among the medal favourites when they take to the startline in Gdynia &ndash; despite the fact that both men will be making their half marathon debut.</p>
<p>They are joined on the team by 2009 world U20 cross-country bronze medallist Moses Kibet, Stephen Kissa and Abel Chebet.</p>
<p>Juliet Chekwel, who holds the Ugandan records for 10,000m (31:37.99), half marathon (1:09:45) and the marathon (2:23:13), leads the women&rsquo;s team.</p>
<p>Doreen Chemutai, Doreen Chesang, Rachael Zena Chebet make up the rest of the Ugandan women&rsquo;s roster.</p>
<h3>Ugandan team for Gdynia</h3>
<p><strong>Men:</strong> Abel Chebet, Joshua Cheptegei, Moses Kibet, Jacob Kiplimo, Stephen Kissa</p>
<p><strong>Women:</strong> Juliet Chekwel, Doreen Chemutai, Doreen Chesang, Rachael Zena Chebet</p>

World 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and world 3000m leader Jacob Kiplimo are among the athletes selected to represent Uganda at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.

World Half Gdynia 2020 Ugandan team

Cheptegei and Kiplimo lead Ugandan team for World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020

<p><br />Life has never come easily to Trayvon Bromell.</p>
<p>He grew up on the south side of the city of St Petersburg, Florida, where poverty and gang violence were common. His best friend ended up in jail and Bromell admits he still to this day carries the scars of PTSD from some of the things he has seen in his life.</p>
<p>He found salvation in athletics. As a first-year university student, he won the NCAA 100m title. At the age of 20 he snared a world 100m bronze medal in Beijing. The following year, he struck 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships.</p>
<p>But since picking up a heel injury in 2016, he has undergone two surgeries and a painstaking rehabilitation which virtually wiped out three full seasons out of his career.</p>
<p>Yet this year Bromell is back. Despite a Covid-19 disrupted period of preparation, the 25-year-old US sprinter blitzed to a 9.90 100m clocking in July &ndash; a performance which currently sits second on the world lists and his fastest time for four years.</p>
<p>Now coached by Rana Reider alongside training partners Omar McLeod, Nia Ali and Andre de Grasse, Bromell is like a man re-born.</p>
<p>His underprivileged background has instilled the 1.75m tall sprinter with the motivation and will to succeed, and the mental resilience he has needed over the past three years.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I grew up around a lot of gang violence and gang influence,&rdquo; explains Bromell. &ldquo;It was a humbling place, a hard place &ndash; where we come from we call it the trenches. But living in these places can make you a man and make you withstand any storm that comes your way.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It is fair to say Bromell has overcome his fair share of storms.</p>
<p>His mother worked 7pm-7am every day and directed him down the right path, &ldquo;making sure I wasn&rsquo;t in those bad situations,&rdquo; explains Bromell. He took up sprinting at the age of four and joined the Lightning Bolt Track Club, where, for the next 14 years, his track career was guided by the inspirational Garlynn Boyd. Bromell describes Boyd as his &ldquo;second mom&rdquo; and she instilled in him a desire to improve.<br /><br /></p>
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<p>Bromell&rsquo;s sporting journey, however, did not come without its challenges. Between his eighth and tenth grade, he broke his left knee doing a backflip, broke his right knee and forearm playing basketball, and fractured a hip during a race.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It (the injuries and my background) put me in a mind-set where I knew I had to work twice as hard to achieve what I have,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;None of the success you see has come without hard work. I&rsquo;ve had broken bones and health issues, I&rsquo;ve never had time to slack off.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And perhaps as a direct result of not being defeated by these set-backs, Bromell says he now fears no one on the track.</p>
<p>Bromell worked with Boyd to shrug off the injuries, and in his final year at high school he secured the national U20 100m title and earned 100m bronze at the 2013 Pan American Junior Championships in Colombia.</p>
<p>But after graduating from high school, he faced a crossroads in his life.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;What took me out of my environment was my decision to go to Baylor (University in Texas),&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;That gave me a better life. I even asked coach (Mike) Ford to try to get me to the school because &lsquo;if I don&rsquo;t leave St Pete, I don&rsquo;t know how my life is going to end&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the summer of 2013 he was recruited by Baylor, which quickly took his life on a positive trajectory. As a freshman he powered to a world U20 record of 9.97 on his way to the NCAA 100m title. In 2015 he shared world 100m bronze &ndash; coincidentally with his current training partner Andre de Grasse.</p>
<p>He turned pro, banked the 2016 world indoor 60m title and was preparing well for the Rio Olympics, only to pick up a heel injury&ndash; later diagnosed as a bone spur&nbsp;&ndash; the day before the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham in early June. He nonetheless battled on to the US Olympic Trials, where, despite a badly compromised build up, he equalled his PB to claim second in 9.84 and book his spot on the US team for Rio.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="56de349e3f01e20e405ffe55" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/60c281cd-e3ff-4ee5-9644-72c5d5dfcf0a.png');">&nbsp;</div>
Trayvon Bromell at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the injury meant he was unable to produce his best in Brazil. Showing huge mental resilience and fortitude, he scrapped his way to the final but wound up eighth in 10.06.</p>
<p>Ever upbeat, Bromell tried to suck the positives out of his maiden Olympic experience. &ldquo;Of course, it was not on the circumstances I would have wanted, but I can&rsquo;t be mad,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The opportunity to race in an Olympic final is one many people would wish to have.&rdquo;</p>
<p>On his return home, he underwent surgery in Dallas to remove the bone spur. However, the doctor mistakenly advised Bromell to carry out no strengthening exercises on the heel. This was to prove costly.</p>
<p>The lack of rehab exercises caused a build-up of scar tissue, so Bromell had to undergo a second surgery to fix the problem. In between he had made it to the start line for the 100m heats of the 2017 US Championships but in his only appearance of the year he finished fifth in 10.22.</p>
<p>In 2018 he focused on strengthening his foot and achilles. Endless calf raises were part of the daily training diet while running sometimes up to 1000m in distance &ldquo;whatever the coach asked of me&rdquo; on the track, grass field on underwater treadmill were carried out.</p>
<p>It was, at times, a gruelling road back to full fitness</p>
<p>&ldquo;The hardest part was not being able to do what I love,&rdquo; says Bromell. &ldquo;Track is such a big part of me and my life. What kept me going were the people around me, my faith and mentality. They had to remind me where I&rsquo;d come from. Only the strong survive, and I had to find that fight again. I had to find that fire.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div id="56de33023f01e20e405ffe53" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/d445221f-42e2-4c4a-a9c3-d2a3ede2db34.png');">&nbsp;</div>
US sprinter Trayvon Bromell in action over 60m</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Twenty-four months on from his last competitive appearance, he returned to competition June 2019, finishing eighth in 10.57 in Kingston, Jamaica. In his next race in Montverde, Florida, he shaved 0.03 from that time but tweaked an adductor.</p>
<p>He knew change was necessary and the following month left his long-term coach, Mike Ford, in Texas to join Reider&rsquo;s world-class training group in Florida. Bromell fully acknowledges the huge role Ford played in his career development; he simply required a different set of resources.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I needed to be in a different environment and to try something new,&rdquo; explains Bromell of the switch. &ldquo;Rana has strong credentials, the drive and a fierce work ethic.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Bromell says training under Reider is &lsquo;a grind&rsquo; and completely different to previous training regimes. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not for the weak,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You have to be ready to hurt.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He doesn&rsquo;t go into specifics, but insists he is not being deliberately evasive. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not lying to you, sometimes the workouts are so hard, it is difficult to remember them!&rdquo;</p>
<p>The training may be tough but the bond forged with his fellow athletes in the Tumbleweed Track Club is strong. He values the whole-hearted support of the likes of De Grasse, Ali, McLeod and others.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I say this with the utmost respect and love, that besides God, I would not be back running if it wasn&rsquo;t for this group of great individuals,&rdquo; he adds.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In the training sessions, I hear the guys shout out &lsquo;you can do it&rsquo; and &lsquo;you can make this comeback&rsquo;. We really push each other. If coronavirus had not have happened, the world would have seen some amazing performances from the Tumbleweed Track Club. The numbers we were putting up in practice were crazy.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Covid-19 did then hit and Bromell was forced to improvise. Without a track or weight-room facility to access, training with resistance bands and carrying out body circuits at home became the norm. The group trained on grass fields and Reider was forced to yell his instructions from afar to ensure adequate physical distancing.<br /><br /></p>
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<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/c6af5917-08d1-46fc-9e0c-2f07fe628209.jpeg');">&nbsp;</div>
US sprinter Trayvon Bromell</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In July, just a week and a half before his outdoor seasonal debut, Bromell learned of the tragic death of his first coach and &lsquo;second mom&rsquo;, Boyd. She was aged just 54 but had struggled with diabetes &ndash; both of her legs were amputated &ndash; and she had contracted coronavirus.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was hard,&rdquo; says Bromell. &ldquo;She was like family and always there for me, it was like having another parent. She pushed me and gave me that inner drive. She coached every child as if they were her own. To see someone die who had nurtured so many kids was hard.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Inspired by Boyd, he ran 10.04 &ndash; his quickest 100m time for four years &ndash; in Montverde. Three weeks later he scorched to a 9.90 clocking &ndash; the joint-fourth fastest 100m time of his career &ndash; to defeat world 200m champion Noah Lyles in Clermont. Two more sub-10-second times &ndash; a 9.99 and a windy 9.87 &ndash; followed in August in Montverde before Bromell decided to shut down his brief but confidence-boosting 2020 campaign.</p>
<p>&ldquo;For this season, I did what we wanted to which was to come and run fast,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;When I ran 10.04 for my first outing, it was a big shock. Then to come out and run 9.90 against Noah showed great fitness under difficult circumstances (training in a global pandemic).&rdquo;</p>
<p>Bromell is currently taking a period of rest before returning to training in October when he&rsquo;ll turn his attention to preparing for the rescheduled Olympic Games. Given his past injury situation, Bromell admits the switching of the Tokyo Games could be beneficial for him.</p>
<p>Yet beyond medals and PBs, the Floridian, who went back to college to complete a masters&rsquo; degree in business, has some more general goals to achieve in the future.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say I&rsquo;m going to run nine-point-something, I just want to keep inspiring people,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I do that, it will be more than I&rsquo;ve ever dreamed of.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Steve Landells for World Athletics</strong></p>

Life has never come easily to Trayvon Bromell.


Life has never come easily to Trayvon Bromell.
He grew up on the south side of the city of St Petersburg, Florida, where poverty and gang violence were common. His best friend ended up in jail and Bromell admits he still to this day carries the scars of PTSD from some of the things he has seen in his life.
He found salvation in athletics. As a first-year university student, he won the NCAA 100m title. At the age of 20 he snared a world 100m bronze medal in Beijing. The following year, he struck 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships.
But since picking up a heel injury in 2016, he has undergone two surgeries and a painstaking rehabilitation which virtually wiped out three full seasons out of his career.
Yet this year Bromell is back. Despite a Covid-19 disrupted period of preparation, the 25-year-old US sprinter blitzed to a 9.90 100m clocking in July – a performance which currently sits second on the world lists and his fastest time for four years.
Now coached by Rana Reider alongside training partners Omar McLeod, Nia Ali and Andre de Grasse, Bromell is like a man re-born.
His underprivileged background has instilled the 1.75m tall sprinter with the motivation and will to succeed, and the mental resilience he has needed over the past three years.
“I grew up around a lot of gang violence and gang influence,” explains Bromell. “It was a humbling place, a hard place – where we come from we call it the trenches. But living in these places can make you a man and make you withstand any storm that comes your way.”
It is fair to say Bromell has overcome his fair share of storms.
His mother worked 7pm-7am every day and directed him down the right path, “making sure I wasn’t in those bad situations,” explains Bromell. He took up sprinting at the age of four and joined the Lightning Bolt Track Club, where, for the next 14 years, his track career was guided by the inspirational Garlynn Boyd. Bromell describes Boyd as his “second mom” and she instilled in him a desire to improve.     View this post on Instagram           
A post shared by Trayvon Bromell (@iamtrayvonbromell) on Aug 28, 2020 at 4:07pm PDT

Bromell’s sporting journey, however, did not come without its challenges. Between his eighth and tenth grade, he broke his left knee doing a backflip, broke his right knee and forearm playing basketball, and fractured a hip during a race.
“It (the injuries and my background) put me in a mind-set where I knew I had to work twice as hard to achieve what I have,” he says. “None of the success you see has come without hard work. I’ve had broken bones and health issues, I’ve never had time to slack off.”
And perhaps as a direct result of not being defeated by these set-backs, Bromell says he now fears no one on the track.
Bromell worked with Boyd to shrug off the injuries, and in his final year at high school he secured the national U20 100m title and earned 100m bronze at the 2013 Pan American Junior Championships in Colombia.
But after graduating from high school, he faced a crossroads in his life. 
“What took me out of my environment was my decision to go to Baylor (University in Texas),” he explains. “That gave me a better life. I even asked coach (Mike) Ford to try to get me to the school because ‘if I don’t leave St Pete, I don’t know how my life is going to end’.”
In the summer of 2013 he was recruited by Baylor, which quickly took his life on a positive trajectory. As a freshman he powered to a world U20 record of 9.97 on his way to the NCAA 100m title. In 2015 he shared world 100m bronze – coincidentally with his current training partner Andre de Grasse.
He turned pro, banked the 2016 world indoor 60m title and was preparing well for the Rio Olympics, only to pick up a heel injury– later diagnosed as a bone spur – the day before the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham in early June. He nonetheless battled on to the US Olympic Trials, where, despite a badly compromised build up, he equalled his PB to claim second in 9.84 and book his spot on the US team for Rio. 
Trayvon Bromell at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015
 
Unfortunately, the injury meant he was unable to produce his best in Brazil. Showing huge mental resilience and fortitude, he scrapped his way to the final but wound up eighth in 10.06.
Ever upbeat, Bromell tried to suck the positives out of his maiden Olympic experience. “Of course, it was not on the circumstances I would have wanted, but I can’t be mad,” he says. “The opportunity to race in an Olympic final is one many people would wish to have.”
On his return home, he underwent surgery in Dallas to remove the bone spur. However, the doctor mistakenly advised Bromell to carry out no strengthening exercises on the heel. This was to prove costly.
The lack of rehab exercises caused a build-up of scar tissue, so Bromell had to undergo a second surgery to fix the problem. In between he had made it to the start line for the 100m heats of the 2017 US Championships but in his only appearance of the year he finished fifth in 10.22.
In 2018 he focused on strengthening his foot and achilles. Endless calf raises were part of the daily training diet while running sometimes up to 1000m in distance “whatever the coach asked of me” on the track, grass field on underwater treadmill were carried out.
It was, at times, a gruelling road back to full fitness
“The hardest part was not being able to do what I love,” says Bromell. “Track is such a big part of me and my life. What kept me going were the people around me, my faith and mentality. They had to remind me where I’d come from. Only the strong survive, and I had to find that fight again. I had to find that fire.” 
US sprinter Trayvon Bromell in action over 60m
 
Twenty-four months on from his last competitive appearance, he returned to competition June 2019, finishing eighth in 10.57 in Kingston, Jamaica. In his next race in Montverde, Florida, he shaved 0.03 from that time but tweaked an adductor.
He knew change was necessary and the following month left his long-term coach, Mike Ford, in Texas to join Reider’s world-class training group in Florida. Bromell fully acknowledges the huge role Ford played in his career development; he simply required a different set of resources.
“I needed to be in a different environment and to try something new,” explains Bromell of the switch. “Rana has strong credentials, the drive and a fierce work ethic.”
Bromell says training under Reider is ‘a grind’ and completely different to previous training regimes. “It’s not for the weak,” he says. “You have to be ready to hurt.”
He doesn’t go into specifics, but insists he is not being deliberately evasive. “I’m not lying to you, sometimes the workouts are so hard, it is difficult to remember them!”
The training may be tough but the bond forged with his fellow athletes in the Tumbleweed Track Club is strong. He values the whole-hearted support of the likes of De Grasse, Ali, McLeod and others.
“I say this with the utmost respect and love, that besides God, I would not be back running if it wasn’t for this group of great individuals,” he adds.
“In the training sessions, I hear the guys shout out ‘you can do it’ and ‘you can make this comeback’. We really push each other. If coronavirus had not have happened, the world would have seen some amazing performances from the Tumbleweed Track Club. The numbers we were putting up in practice were crazy.”
Unfortunately, Covid-19 did then hit and Bromell was forced to improvise. Without a track or weight-room facility to access, training with resistance bands and carrying out body circuits at home became the norm. The group trained on grass fields and Reider was forced to yell his instructions from afar to ensure adequate physical distancing. 
US sprinter Trayvon Bromell
 
In July, just a week and a half before his outdoor seasonal debut, Bromell learned of the tragic death of his first coach and ‘second mom’, Boyd. She was aged just 54 but had struggled with diabetes – both of her legs were amputated – and she had contracted coronavirus.
“It was hard,” says Bromell. “She was like family and always there for me, it was like having another parent. She pushed me and gave me that inner drive. She coached every child as if they were her own. To see someone die who had nurtured so many kids was hard.”
Inspired by Boyd, he ran 10.04 – his quickest 100m time for four years – in Montverde. Three weeks later he scorched to a 9.90 clocking – the joint-fourth fastest 100m time of his career – to defeat world 200m champion Noah Lyles in Clermont. Two more sub-10-second times – a 9.99 and a windy 9.87 – followed in August in Montverde before Bromell decided to shut down his brief but confidence-boosting 2020 campaign.
“For this season, I did what we wanted to which was to come and run fast,” he explains. “When I ran 10.04 for my first outing, it was a big shock. Then to come out and run 9.90 against Noah showed great fitness under difficult circumstances (training in a global pandemic).”
Bromell is currently taking a period of rest before returning to training in October when he’ll turn his attention to preparing for the rescheduled Olympic Games. Given his past injury situation, Bromell admits the switching of the Tokyo Games could be beneficial for him.
Yet beyond medals and PBs, the Floridian, who went back to college to complete a masters’ degree in business, has some more general goals to achieve in the future.
“I don’t want to say I’m going to run nine-point-something, I just want to keep inspiring people,” he says. “If I do that, it will be more than I’ve ever dreamed of.”
Steve Landells for World Athletics

Trayvon Bromell USA sprints comeback

Back to full health, Bromell's biggest goal is to continue to inspire

<p><br />The <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://doha.diamondleague.com/programme-results-doha/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provisional entry lists</a></strong></span> are now available for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.</p>
<p>Mondo Duplantis, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Timothy Cheruiyot and Hellen Obiri are among the star-studded cast of world and Olympic medallists that will grace the track at Doha's Qatar Sports Club in the final Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.</p>
<p>&ldquo;In spite of incredibly challenging circumstances, I&rsquo;m proud of the fantastic fields we&rsquo;ve put together for this event,&rdquo; says Khalid Al Marri, Wanda Doha Diamond League meeting director.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a tough summer for everyone, yet we&rsquo;ve witnessed some exceptional track and field performances. I&rsquo;m confident that in Doha, the fourth and final competitive meeting of this shortened 2020 Wanda Diamond League series, we&rsquo;ll provide a fitting finale.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Doha&rsquo;s Qatar Sports Club will host the revised 12-event programme for the Wanda Doha Diamond League which includes sprint hurdles and 800m for both men and women; 100m, 3000m and long jump for women; and 200m, 400m, 1500m and pole vault for men.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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</div>

The provisional entry lists are now available for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.


The provisional entry lists are now available for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.
Mondo Duplantis, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Timothy Cheruiyot and Hellen Obiri are among the star-studded cast of world and Olympic medallists that will grace the track at Doha's Qatar Sports Club in the final Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.
“In spite of incredibly challenging circumstances, I’m proud of the fantastic fields we’ve put together for this event,” says Khalid Al Marri, Wanda Doha Diamond League meeting director.
“It’s been a tough summer for everyone, yet we’ve witnessed some exceptional track and field performances. I’m confident that in Doha, the fourth and final competitive meeting of this shortened 2020 Wanda Diamond League series, we’ll provide a fitting finale.”
Doha’s Qatar Sports Club will host the revised 12-event programme for the Wanda Doha Diamond League which includes sprint hurdles and 800m for both men and women; 100m, 3000m and long jump for women; and 200m, 400m, 1500m and pole vault for men.
  

Diamond League entry lists

Doha provisional entry lists, as at 21 September

<p><br />In a javelin competition where the top three athletes exceeded a championship record that had stood for 32 years, Moldova&rsquo;s Andrian Mardare emerged victorious with 83.60m, producing one of the main highlights of the Balkan Championships in Cluj-Napoca.</p>
<p>More than 250 athletes from 11 countries descended on the Romanian city for two days of action, which concluded on Sunday (20).</p>
<p>Mardare, bronze medallist at the 2016 Balkan Championships, headed to Romania off the back of some strong performances on the Continental Tour circuit. After opening with a foul, he took command of the competition with his second-round effort of 82.78m.</p>
<p>Bulgaria&rsquo;s Mark Slavov, who took silver at last year&rsquo;s Balkan Championships and bronze in 2018, threw a PB of 78.28m in the second round but then unleashed an almighty 83.40m to break the Bulgarian record, adding almost nine metres to his pre-competition best.</p>
<p>Mardare kept his composure and responded with 81.01m to close out that round, but then improved to 83.60m in round four to take a narrow lead. Salvov didn&rsquo;t improve on his record throw, while Mardare rounded out his consistent series with efforts of 83.03m and 80.68m.</p>
<p>Bosnia and Herzegovina&rsquo;s Dejan Mileusnic, the 2016 Balkan champion, finished third with 79.57m, which was better than the previous championship best.</p>
<p>Alin Alexandru Firfirica won his fourth Balkan title in the men&rsquo;s discus. The Romanian, who finished fourth at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, threw 64.72m to win by more than six metres.</p>
<p>Compatriot Bianca Ghelber also landed her fourth senior Balkan title. The two-time world U20 champion, now aged 30, produced her best series of the year to win the women&rsquo;s hammer with 72.18m, regaining the title she last won in 2014.</p>
<p>For the second year in a row, the men&rsquo;s hammer title was won by an U20 athlete. 2019 winner Christos Frantzeskakis was unable to defend his title as Greece opted not to send a team, leaving Mykhaylo Kokhan a relatively clear path to victory.</p>
<p>The 19-year-old Ukrainian, who finished fifth at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, took the lead in round three with 75.01m and followed it with three further throws beyond 75 metres, his best &ndash; 75.43m &ndash; coming in the penultimate round.</p>
<h3>Tkachuk takes 400m hurdles title, Bobocea completes middle-distance double</h3>
<p>Ukrainian athletes scooped several medals on the track and they landed a 1-2 finish in both of the women&rsquo;s one-lap events.</p>
<p>Viktoriia Tkachuk won the 400m hurdles in 55.58, finishing comfortably ahead of teammate Mariaa Mykolenko. Anna Ryzhykova, better known as a hurdler, focused on the 400m flat in Cluj-Napoca &nbsp;and won handily in 51.74, just 0.04 shy of the PB she set last month. Compatriot Alina Logvynenko was second in 52.89.</p>
<p>All four women teamed up in the 4x400m on Sunday and won gold by almost four seconds in 3:34.21.</p>
<p>Claudia Bobocea won both of the host nation&rsquo;s individual track titles. She took the 800m title on Saturday in 2:03.32 and then returned to the track 24 hours later to win the 1500m in 4:12.95.</p>
<p>Turkey&rsquo;s Jak Ali Harvey was the most successful athlete of the championships. He won the men&rsquo;s sprint double in 10.30 and 20.77 and added another gold medal in the 4x100m (39.63). Turkey added another relay gold in the final race of the championships, the men&rsquo;s 4x400m (3:06.35).</p>
<h3>Petrova lands double jumps gold</h3>
<p>Bulgaria&rsquo;s Gabriela Petrova also had a busy weekend. The 2015 European indoor silver medallist comfortably won her specialist event, the triple jump, on Saturday with 14.19m (0.8m/s). She was back on the runway on Sunday in the long jump and once again emerged victorious, taking the lead in round three with 6.34m and then improving to 6.41m in the fourth round.</p>
<p>She becomes the first athlete since Marian Oprea in 2014 to complete the horizontal jumps double at the Balkan Championships.</p>
<p>Other jumps highlights came from Armenia&rsquo;s Levon Aghasyan, who won the men&rsquo;s triple jump with his opening effort of 16.53m, and Ukraine&rsquo;s Andriy Protsenko, who claimed the men&rsquo;s high jump title with 2.25m.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Alina Shukh won the heptathlon title with a massive 1000-point margin, scoring 5940, helped by a 51.90m effort in the javelin.</p>
<p>Ukraine topped the medals table with 12 gold and 32 medals in total, followed by Turkey (10 gold) and Romania (8).</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

In a javelin competition where the top three athletes exceeded a championship record that had stood for 32 years, Moldova’s Andrian Mardare emerged victorious with 83.60m, producing one of the main highlights of the Balkan Championships in Cluj-Napoca.

Balkan Championships 2020 Mardare

Mardare highlights Balkan Championships with record-breaking throw 

<p><br />Kenya&rsquo;s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men&rsquo;s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.</p>
<p>The 21-year-old, contesting his first 10,000m race in three years, ran alongside compatriot Solomon Kiplimo Boit during the early stages, passing through 3000m just inside 8:12. Kimeli broke away from Boit just a couple of laps later and set off in pursuit of a sub-27-minute time.</p>
<p>Kimeli&rsquo;s lead grew with each lap, while Boit continued running in no-man&rsquo;s land. Further behind, Dutch runner Mike Foppen, making his debut over 10,000m, gradually detached himself from the main chase pack.</p>
<p>Kimeli forged on and started to sprint on the final lap when he realised a sub-27-minute performance was a possibility. He crossed the line in 26:58.97 to smash the meeting record by almost half a minute.</p>
<p>Boit finished second in 27:41.10, while Foppen placed third in 27:59.10. It was Foppen&rsquo;s eighth PB of the year, having set two at 1500m, one at 2000m, two at 3000m, plus national records for 5000m and 5km.</p>
<p>In fourth, Swedish teenager Emil Millan de la Oliva clocked a national U20 record of 28:23.21, just one second shy of the European U20 record of 28:22.48 set by Italy's Christian Leuprecht back in 1990.</p>
<p>As is tradition at this meeting, a golden spike trophy is presented to the top performer of the night. Unsurprisingly, Kimeli scooped that accolade.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Leiden, Menno Vloon won the pole vault with 5.76m, the second-best clearance of his career after his 5.85m national record in 2017.</p>
<h3>Warholm and Ingebrigtsen dominant at Norwegian Championships</h3>
<p>Some of the country&rsquo;s biggest stars turned out in Bergen for the Norwegian Championships, which concluded on Sunday (20).</p>
<p>Just three days after winning in Rome with a meeting record of 47.07, two-time world champion Karsten Warholm won the 400m hurdles in 48.23, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.</p>
<p>Jakob Ingebrigtsen completed a middle-distance double, taking the 1500m title in 3:33.93 on Saturday &ndash; winning by 13 seconds &ndash; and then winning the 800m in 1:48.72 on Sunday.</p>
<p>A week after setting a world U18 heptathlon best of 6301, 17-year-old Henriette J&aelig;ger won the 400m in 52.90 and the 200m in 23.60 (-2.0m/s). She was also third in the long jump (6.04m).</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Amalie Iuel won the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in 55.63 and Zerei Kbrom Mezngi took the men&rsquo;s 10,000m title in 28:04.29.</p>
<h3>Yamanishi impresses in Kumagaya</h3>
<p>World champion Toshikazu Yamanishi stepped down in distance at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships in Kumagaya and won the 5000m race walk in 18:34.88, the fastest ever clocking by an Asian race walker.</p>
<p>Yamanishi had Eiki Takahashi, Tomohiro Noda and Satoshi Maruo for company in the early stages, but he gradually dropped them one by one before going on to win by almost 17 seconds. Takahashi finished second in 18:51.25.</p>
<p>Yamanishi&rsquo;s winning time is four seconds faster than the Asian record set by Yusuke Suzuki back in 2015, just three months after he set a world record over 20km.<br /><br /></p>
<div id="5f6645279997220ad4567149" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/5efc5e59-f75e-4e2b-b4d4-8aa36d9bcc94.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Toshikazu Yamanishi on his way to winning the 5000m race walk at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a high-quality men&rsquo;s 10,000m race, 2015 world U18 champion Richard Kimunyan emerged the winner in 27:01.42, finishing just one second ahead of Benard Koech (27:02.39) with Bedan Karoki a close third (27:02.80). Kimunyan&rsquo;s time was a world lead but lasted just eight hours at the top of the world list before it was bettered in Leiden.</p>
<p>The women's 5000m was similarly speedy, won by Kenya's Rebecca Mwangi in 14:55.32. National half marathon record-holder Hitomi Niiya was a close second in 14:55.83, while Ririka Hironaka placed third in 14:59.37. Niiya and Hironaka moved to second and third respectively on the Japanese all-time list.</p>
<p>On the infield, Tomohiro Shinno produced a lifetime best of 2.31m to win the men's high jump title, moving to fourth on the Japanese all-time list in the process. National record-holder Haruka Kitaguchi threw a season&rsquo;s best of 63.45m to win the women&rsquo;s javelin.</p>

Kenya’s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men’s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.


Kenya’s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men’s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.
The 21-year-old, contesting his first 10,000m race in three years, ran alongside compatriot Solomon Kiplimo Boit during the early stages, passing through 3000m just inside 8:12. Kimeli broke away from Boit just a couple of laps later and set off in pursuit of a sub-27-minute time.
Kimeli’s lead grew with each lap, while Boit continued running in no-man’s land. Further behind, Dutch runner Mike Foppen, making his debut over 10,000m, gradually detached himself from the main chase pack.
Kimeli forged on and started to sprint on the final lap when he realised a sub-27-minute performance was a possibility. He crossed the line in 26:58.97 to smash the meeting record by almost half a minute.
Boit finished second in 27:41.10, while Foppen placed third in 27:59.10. It was Foppen’s eighth PB of the year, having set two at 1500m, one at 2000m, two at 3000m, plus national records for 5000m and 5km.
In fourth, Swedish teenager Emil Millan de la Oliva clocked a national U20 record of 28:23.21, just one second shy of the European U20 record of 28:22.48 set by Italy's Christian Leuprecht back in 1990.
As is tradition at this meeting, a golden spike trophy is presented to the top performer of the night. Unsurprisingly, Kimeli scooped that accolade.
Elsewhere in Leiden, Menno Vloon won the pole vault with 5.76m, the second-best clearance of his career after his 5.85m national record in 2017.Warholm and Ingebrigtsen dominant at Norwegian Championships
Some of the country’s biggest stars turned out in Bergen for the Norwegian Championships, which concluded on Sunday (20).
Just three days after winning in Rome with a meeting record of 47.07, two-time world champion Karsten Warholm won the 400m hurdles in 48.23, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen completed a middle-distance double, taking the 1500m title in 3:33.93 on Saturday – winning by 13 seconds – and then winning the 800m in 1:48.72 on Sunday.
A week after setting a world U18 heptathlon best of 6301, 17-year-old Henriette Jæger won the 400m in 52.90 and the 200m in 23.60 (-2.0m/s). She was also third in the long jump (6.04m).
Elsewhere, Amalie Iuel won the women’s 400m hurdles in 55.63 and Zerei Kbrom Mezngi took the men’s 10,000m title in 28:04.29.Yamanishi impresses in Kumagaya
World champion Toshikazu Yamanishi stepped down in distance at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships in Kumagaya and won the 5000m race walk in 18:34.88, the fastest ever clocking by an Asian race walker.
Yamanishi had Eiki Takahashi, Tomohiro Noda and Satoshi Maruo for company in the early stages, but he gradually dropped them one by one before going on to win by almost 17 seconds. Takahashi finished second in 18:51.25.
Yamanishi’s winning time is four seconds faster than the Asian record set by Yusuke Suzuki back in 2015, just three months after he set a world record over 20km. 
Toshikazu Yamanishi on his way to winning the 5000m race walk at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships
 
In a high-quality men’s 10,000m race, 2015 world U18 champion Richard Kimunyan emerged the winner in 27:01.42, finishing just one second ahead of Benard Koech (27:02.39) with Bedan Karoki a close third (27:02.80). Kimunyan’s time was a world lead but lasted just eight hours at the top of the world list before it was bettered in Leiden.
The women's 5000m was similarly speedy, won by Kenya's Rebecca Mwangi in 14:55.32. National half marathon record-holder Hitomi Niiya was a close second in 14:55.83, while Ririka Hironaka placed third in 14:59.37. Niiya and Hironaka moved to second and third respectively on the Japanese all-time list.
On the infield, Tomohiro Shinno produced a lifetime best of 2.31m to win the men's high jump title, moving to fourth on the Japanese all-time list in the process. National record-holder Haruka Kitaguchi threw a season’s best of 63.45m to win the women’s javelin.

Feature