Given that a tiny percentage of those who watch a world championships in, say, athletics or cycling are actually there in the stands or at roadside, does it matter where you stage it? Are empty seats just a preoccupation of journalists covering an event when most people are taking it in from home on television? If ever there was a time to ask, it was after departing the world championship cycling in Yorkshire — where one fan was watching in a wetsuit in his determination to be part of a sodden occasion — to take in the women’s world 100m final in Doha, Qatar last night. Out in the emirate, Dina Asher-Smith pulled off the fastest sprint in history by a British woman and embarked…

Source: The Times September 30, 2019 08:03 UTC