The 17th edition of the IAAF World Athletics Championships kicks off on Friday in Qatar – the first Middle Eastern country to host the biennial competition.
More than 1,900 athletes from 210 countries will take part in 24 events over 10 days.
The main events will take place in Khalifa International Stadium, a 40,000-capacity venue that was reopened in May 2017 after renovations.
Reigning 100m world champion Justin Gatlin, six-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix from the United States and sprinters Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson from Jamaica, among others, will be the highlights of the lineup in Doha.
At 49 years of age, Spain’s Jesus Angel Garcia will become the oldest competitor in the history of the championships when he starts the 50km race walk on Saturday.
Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya will be a notable absentee after a Swiss court reversed a ruling that temporarily lifted the IAAF’s recently introduced regulations requiring female middle-distance athletes to take medication to reduce naturally occurring high testosterone levels.
Tickets for the finish line are sold out for all 10 days of the event and more than 200,000 spectators are expected to attend, Hamad al-Obaidly, head of media and communications for the local organising committee (LOC), told Al Jazeera.
An advanced open-air and environment-friendly cooling technology was installed to keep the pitch temperature at an optimum 26C, which can be reduced to a low of 17C.
Built in 1976, the multi-purpose outdoor arena has already hosted football’s Gulf Cup, the 2006 Asian Games and the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. It will also play host to matches at the FIFA World Cup in 2022..
Eighteen athletes, including two females, will represent hosts Qatar, which won the hosting rights in 2014, beating rival cities Eugene in the US, and Spain’s Barcelona.
Mariam Mandouh Farid, a leading Qatari female athlete who won the triple jump silver medal at the West Asian athletics championships in Jordan last year, will take part in the 400m hurdles on Tuesday.
