This archive report was first published on 28 September 2019.
On a sweltering Saturday morning, Ruth Chepngetich, a 25-year-old Kenyan athlete, battled the extreme heat and humidity to secure the women's marathon title at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships. The grueling 42-kilometer course saw Chepngetich cross the finish line in an impressive 2 hours, 32 minutes, and 43 seconds.
Finishing second was Rose Chelimo from Bahrain, with Helalia Johannes from Namibia taking the bronze medal. Chepngetich's victory came despite the challenging conditions, with temperatures soaring above 30 degrees Celsius and humidity levels reaching 70 percent.
"I'm so happy," Chepngetich exclaimed after the race. "It was not so bad for me. I ran in Dubai where the conditions are similar."
However, not all athletes fared as well. Of the 68 participants who started the race just before midnight on Friday, 28 dropped out due to the extreme conditions. Canada's Lyndsay Tessier, who finished ninth, described the experience as "extremely grounding and scary."
"You see somebody down on the course and it's just, extremely grounding and scary," Tessier said. "You think that could be you in the next kilometre, the next 500 meters."
Yohann Diniz, a French athlete who won the gold medal at the 2017 championships in the 50km walk, criticized the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for hosting the event in the city center. "If we were in the stadium we would have normal conditions," Diniz said. "But outside they have placed us in a furnace, which is just not possible. They are making us guinea pigs."
