Doha World Championships Notebook - Day 7

Life gets tough for coach Salazar's athletes

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Since American track coach Alberto Salazar was banned for four years for doping related offences, athletes he has been coaching have faced difficult questions from journalists as to whether or not they have been complicit in the matter. Two days ago, Salazar was banned for "orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct while acting, respectively, as head coach of the Nike-backed Oregon Project (NOP) and as a paid consultant for the NOP on performance enhancement and as physician for numerous athletes in the NOP."

Here in Doha, life has got even tougher for athletes he has been coaching. Dutch runner Sifan Hassan who reached the semi-finals of women's 1,500m on Wednesday, just a day after her coach Salazar was hit with the ban, expressed her shock over the turn of events. Australia's Jessica Hull and Germany's 5,000m runner Konstanze Klosterhalfen who are members of Salazar's Nike-backed Oregon Project, also expressed their disappointment over the coach's ban.

Observer programme

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Nairobi will host the 2020 World Under-20 Athletics Championships and a team of 10 officials who will be involved in the planning, organisation and hosting of the championship are attending the 2019 World Athletics Championship in Doha as part of the IAAF Observer Programme.

The 10 are eight directors who are heads of media, accommodation, marketing, transport, logistics, security, protocol and Information Technology departments. The other two are the championship's chief executive officer Mike Rabar and chief operating officer Regina Gachora. The 10 are in Doha to pick key lessons during the global championship to ensure things run smoothly in Nairobi next year.

In 2017, Kenya successfully hosted the World Under-18 World Athletics Championship and next year, World Under-20 Athletics Championship is expected to draw even larger crowds. Kenya has also shown interest in hosting the 2025 World Athletics Championships.

Signage in English and Arabic

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Arabic is the official language in Qatar, but English is widely spoken. Most road signs and signboards on city streets are written in Arabic, but you will almost always find English version of the signage. Signage in hospitals, bus stops, retail shops and shopping malls are written in Arabic and English. The national religion is Islam. Qatar is playing host to 2019 World Athletics Championships, and this is just one of the ways the country has sought to make it easy for visitors to move around. The other is use of volunteers who are strategically positioned at various areas in and out of Khalifa International Stadium to assist athletes and fans to find their way to various places. With Qatar due to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup, the country is expected to do even more to facilitate free movement of people during the tournament.

Cutting edge treatment available for athletes here

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Qatar is home to Aspetar Hospital, one of the leading treatment centres for injured sportsmen and women. Based in Doha, the facility is a leading specialised orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital in the world, and boasts some of the world's leading sports medicine practitioners and researchers.

On Tuesday, journalists covering the World Athletics Championships were taken on a guided tour of the facility. The hospital takes pride in "a multidisciplinary approach to athlete management that includes comprehensive assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of injured athletes" and deals in sports medicine, orthopaedic surgery, and rehabilitation. Aspetar provides sports medicine care, particularly injury and illness prevention, for all sporting clubs and sports federations in Qatar.