There’s a

lot to watch out for on day nine of the IAAF World Athletics

Championships Doha 2019, almost too numerous to mention, in fact.

With

preliminaries more or less completed, most events are finals. It’s also relay

time and, to cap day nine and run as into the wee, small hours of day 10, the

men’s marathon will be decided down on the Corniche.

Can’t wait?

Sorry, you’ll just have to.

RELAY MADNESS

One thing

you can say for certain about relays is that you can’t say anything for certain

about relays.

Getting the

baton around safely should be the simplest thing in the world. Mark out your

own checkpoints within the changeover zone, add a margin for safety, wait for

baton to arrive and proceed with it firmly in your grip. What could go wrong?

Plenty, experience would suggest.

Day nine

brings the finals of both men’s and women’s 4x100m relays and the heats of the

4x400m. The usual sprint powers will be to the fore, but one of the joys is

seeing well-drilled, highly motivated squads upsetting the established order.

Who will it

be here? (Note: it will happen).

ROAD MAYHEM

The Corniche

is one of Doha’s busiest roads. It is closed to traffic for the World

Championships road events, but that will not bring an end to the mayhem.

Instead, the chaos will ensue on foot as the world’s best male marathoners

battle it out for the gold medal.

Defending

champion Geoffrey Kirui leads a strong Kenyan contingent. The two quickest

entrants are Ethiopian pair Mosinet Geremew (second to Eliud Kipchige in London

this year) and Mule Wasihun (third).

That said,

you may like to check how often the fastest entrant wins any marathon, much

less a championship, much, much less a championships run in Doha conditions.

The winner is on that start list somewhere: but where?

WOMEN’S 1500M AND 5000M

In a glut of

women’s track distance running, the finals of both the 1500m and 5000m are on

the programme.

Sifan Hassan

will start favourite in the shorter race, but there are many contenders.

Defending champion Faith Kipyegon may be short of races as she comes back from

the birth of her first child, but she is a formidable competitor. Jenny Simpson

and Laura Muir are, too. Canada’s Gabriela Debues-Stafford has gone from

strength to strength this year.

The 5000m is

a similarly open contest. Defending champion Hellen Obiri was fastest in the

heats, but plenty of others will fancy their chances.

THE BIG MEN CONTEND

The men’s

shot put looms as a battle of titans and a titanic battle. Tom Walsh led the

qualifiers, but Olympic champion Ryan Crouser and several others were not far

behind.

Walsh seems

to be peaking nicely and New Zealand always seems to win something at major

championships (if that means anything).

Eight men

have topped 22 metres this year; six are in the final. It should be a close

one.

Elsewhere on

the field, there is the clash between Yulimar Rojas and Catherine Ibarguen in

the women’s triple jump. Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts and Tori Franklin of the

US loom as the best outside the big two.

To complete the programme, there are heats of the women’s 100m hurdles and qualifying in the women’s long jump and men’s javelin.

— IAAF