Doha (AFP)

In the furnace of Doha, the defending champion Yohann Diniz is the big favorite of the 50 km march of the world championships on Saturday but the race risks turning into a huge lottery because of the extreme weather conditions that already exasperate the Frenchman.

On paper, the world record holder (3:32:33) is best placed to succeed himself on the charts and bring a first gold medal in the basket of the Blues.

But hot temperatures inevitably rebuff cards and make any prognosis random. The organizers have scheduled the start of the race at 23:30 local to avoid the heat. However, the thermometer should approach 30 degrees with a very high humidity (nearly 75%). All these elements make the outcome of the event uncertain and further increase the risks for the competitors of an already demanding event.

While the vast majority of athletes will benefit from air conditioning set up at the Khalifa Stadium, road races (marathon, walk) will suffer full force the drunken Qatari. What annoy Diniz, arrived in Doha with the best time of the year (3 h 37 min 43 sec in Lithuania in May). On the eve of embarking on a physical challenge that promises to be out of the ordinary, the 41-year-old has not hesitated to say the essence of his thoughts by pushing a huge rage against the organization of these World Championships in the small gas emirate.

- "We are taken for cons" -

"These are conditions, pffff ... I'm a little disappointed, he dropped on Friday, I arrived here in great shape but there are lots of things that appeal to me. but as far as the off-stage is concerned, we are taken for idiots, I am angry, so much in the stadium, we will have normal conditions, between 24 and 25 degrees, but outside we are put in a furnace which It is not possible, there, we are taken for guinea pigs ".

"We had a questionnaire to see how we would behave in the face of heat and humidity, if we could take a capsule to see how we would react to thermo-regulation." But on this competition, the off-stage The marathon and the walk was not considered, it pisses me off and I regret to be there, we will start and finish in terrible conditions, "he added.

So difficult for the French to develop any tactics. This could be summed up in one word: to survive.

- "Loto" -

"Tomorrow, it's going to be lotto, little balls that will fall one by one and it will be the last one that will fall that will win.There is no strategy tomorrow.The strategy will be to leave with everyone, he there will be nothing to do except follow and try to withstand the climatic conditions, "said Diniz, in the running for a brace only by four-time Olympic champion and triple world gold medalist Robert Korzeniowski in 2001 and 2003.

"In particular, the goal will be to find the best pace, to see where adversity is and to pick up the rash ones, and those who will win may not be the best physically, but those who have adapted to these changes. ", also ensures the doctor of the team of France Jean-Michel Serra.

In anticipation of the race scheduled at night and to stay as little as possible under the hood of Doha, the native of Epernay has also decided to arrive at the very last moment in Qatar (Thursday) and try what he calls a "one-shot". The French walker has not forgotten his terrible mishap of the Rio 2016 Olympics and the intestinal troubles that had cost him the Olympic title, the only one missing from his list. There is no question, therefore, of leaving Reims and sacrificing the final stretch of his preparation for a hypothetical acclimatization to the Doha conditions, which he considers impossible anyway. Now place the lottery.

© 2019 AFP