IAAF defends small Doha world championships crowds as stars compete in near-empty stadium

The IAAF today increasingly found itself under fire after a near-empty stadium greeted Dina Asher-Smith winning a first sprint World Championship medal by a British woman in 36 years.

Two-time world champion and BBC pundit Denise Lewis said: “Our governing body has let down our athletes, massively.

"I didn’t expect it to be this bad. The athletes deserve people, an energy and an atmosphere to thrive on.”

As few as 50,000 tickets have reportedly been sold across the 10 days and, inside the Al Khalifa Stadium as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce beat Asher-Smith to 100m gold, there were more journalists and officials than paying spectators.

But the IAAF, who had said when Doha was chosen as hosts that ticketing was a priority, defended the sparse crowds.

It said: “As a global sport with 214 national federations, athletics is bigger than the United Nations and it cannot function if it has to alter direction with every change in geo-politics.