Doha
enters history of athletics as an exceptional venue for IAAF Grand Prix Final
Paul Halford for the IAAF
A new chapter in an implausible story, which began three and half years ago, will be written when the IAAF Grand Prix Final is staged in Doha this Thursday.
On April 24th 1997, Qatar's first ever international athletics meeting was held in the Khalifa Stadium in the nation's capital. Although a $2 million budget secured the presence of stars such as Linford Christie, Butch Reynolds and Colin Jackson, it lacked one crucial element.
Nawal El Moutawakel, one of the IAAF Council members who were present on that day, recalls: "I was not really excited about the meet because something was missing - women."
The country's traditions meant women were unable to compete in public and some thus questioned the IAAF's decision to give its blessing to the event.
However, the sport's world governing body was anxious to promote athletics in the area, both as a means of tapping into a potentially lucrative market and to push back existing barriers to equal rights.
Plans were already in place to convince the organisers to allow women to compete in future years and El Moutawakel was at the forefront of trying to turn this vision into reality.
The Moroccan former 400 metre hurdler, who made a breakthrough of her own in 1984 as the first Arab woman to win an Olympic gold medal, was ideally suited to the task. "I was in a perfect position because I was a Muslim and an Arab," she said.
"I knew the barriers we were facing but fortunately we had a very avid and supportive president of the Qatar Amateur Athletic Federation (QAAF), who really believed in a our process," she continued. "You have to walk before you can jog and, knowing the traditions and that things are so conservative, we needed to go slowly but surely."
El Moutawakel's talks with QAAF President, Col. Dahlan Al-Hamad, as well as the co-operation of Qatar's Emir and President, led the following year to the meeting being the country's first major sporting event to open its doors to women.
Appropriately, this landmark success came in 1998 - the IAAF's "Year of Women in Athletics".
"It was very important for the IAAF because it was the Year of Women in Athletics and that was the highlight of the year," said El Moutawakel.
The female athletes, who included Inger Miller and Michelle Freeman, had to recognise certain clothing restraints and female spectators were admitted only into a specially reserved section. Nevertheless, the meeting, which was granted IAAF GP II status that year, was a huge breakthrough for athletics and Qatar.
"The stadium was very full," remembers El Moutawakel. "The people were curious to come and watch. I was amazed to see how supportive they were."
In 1999, the meeting was elevated to GP I status by the IAAF and, to complete the seemingly miraculous transformation, the city was chosen to host this year's Grand Prix Final. The season finale is set to feature 18 gold, 13 silver and 11 bronze medallists from the Sydney Olympics and is expected to watched by 50,000 people in the stadium.
"Naturally, the idea was to push reforms in favour of women's social and political life, and in this respect I say that, in the last year, for the first time ever in a Muslim country, the women of Qatar were allowed to take part in political polls," said IAAF spokesman Giorgio Reineri.
Asked whether she had envisioned that a meeting that started as a men-only event three years ago would be the Grand Prix Final so soon afterwards, El Moutawakel responds: "Never!"
"I was very worried at the beginning. We never knew how things would turn out," she adds. "But now it's so important to me that Qatar - a tiny country - are organising a Grand Prix Final.
"All the spotlight will be on them, it is great. It shows the talent, the courage, the determination and the will of the people."
With the IAAF harbouring sizeable ambitions for the region, this improbable story is unlikely to end on Thursday.