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Seb Coe is critical of governments for lack of action when it comes to tackling climate change
Seb Coe says plans to incorporate world championships marathon races into the World Marathon Majors events are gathering pace.
The president of World Athletics struggles to see an end to the global warming crisis any time soon and is keen to put measures in place that will provide the best outcome for athletes and fans.
Coe recently gave his annual “president’s award” to the Abbott World Marathon Majors series and he told the media on Monday (Dec 18) that he has been in discussions with them about weaving the world championship road races into their big-city event programmes.
“In light of global warming and inability of governments to use anything other than ‘BS’ in this space,” he says, “then it’s going to be down to sport to try to figure out how they navigate their way through this.”
Natasha Cockram (Getty)
He added: “We’ve found 76% of our athletes already said that global warming has had a profound impact on their competition and training programmes.
“I think it’s inevitable that sport will globally have to look at rejigging the calendar because there won’t be any immediate respite from this problem and we’re further from the 2030 targets than we’ve ever been, whatever anyone tells us at COP 28!”
The World Championships marathon in Doha in 2019 was particularly savage with the women’s marathon field facing temperatures of 32.7C and humidity levels of 73.3% as the race kicked off. Charlotte Purdue was one of many who failed to finish in the oppressive conditions.
Charlotte Purdue (Mark Shearman)
Coe explains further: “The issue for us is really about how we can create those opportunities. A lot of athletes are also looking at the world championships and thinking that Chicago or New York is around the corner and asking themselves whether they should be running the worlds when they can earn good money on the roads a few weeks later.
READ MORE: Seb Coe looks back on 2023 and forward to Olympic year
“Maybe we can reduce the marathon to a half-marathon at the world championships which would at least take some of the athlete welfare issues away and would allow them to do it in the build up to a marathon majors event.”
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