Heat Challenges at Tokyo World Championships

World Athletics chief has flagged issue with Japan enduring hottest summer on record

- 

TOKYO — World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has admitted that the world championships starting in Tokyo this weekend faces "heat challenges", after Japan sweltered through its hottest summer on record.

The country's average temperature from June to August was 2.36 deg C above "the standard value", making it the hottest since records began in 1898, the Japan Meteorological Agency has said.

It was the third consecutive summer of record high temperatures, it noted.

The World Championships begin in Tokyo on Sept 13, four years after the pandemic-delayed Olympics were held in the Japanese capital in 2021.

Coe told reporters that temperatures would be an issue for the athletes.

"I don't think it's any great secret, we do have some heat challenges in Tokyo," he said on Sept 9, when the mercury hit 33 deg C. "We had them actually at the time of the Games in 2021."

Marathon and race walk events at the Tokyo Olympics were moved to the cooler northern city of Sapporo because of heat concerns. The Games' athletics programme took place from July 30 to Aug 8, 2021.

Both events are set to stay in Tokyo for the World Athletics Championships.