¡°It¡¯s like you¡¯re submerged underwater, but the water is boiling, and you¡¯re kind of halfway cooked¡± ¡ª that¡¯s how one distance runner described conditions at the women¡¯s marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championship in Doha on Sept. 27-28.
Even though the marathon started at 11:59 p.m., the race began and ended by the event¡¯s own metrics with a temperature of 32 degrees Celsius and 74 percent humidity, producing a heat index of 41.6 degrees. As a result, 28 of the 68 starters failed to finish the race.
On Oct. 16, the International Olympic Committee advised its Japanese counterpart that ¡°to mitigate the effects of temperatures that may occur next summer,¡± it wanted to move five long-distance events ¡ª the men¡¯s and women¡¯s marathons and 20-kilometer race walks, as well as the men¡¯s 50-kilometer race walk ¡ª from Tokyo to Sapporo, where temperatures are typically 5 to 6 degrees cooler than Tokyo in late July and early August.
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