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Next October, in the middle of the Arabian desert, on another night of an impossible heat, a scientist will approach the coach of one of the marathoners or the marchers who are contesting the World Cup and will say: «The body temperature of his pupil is about above 40 degrees , there is an extreme risk of heat stroke ». And from there, we'll see ...

After granting Qatar the organization of the championship, the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) has launched a study with the prestigious Aspetar Hospital in Doha to try to control the effects of its decision. The participants in the marathon and in the 50 kilometers march will take a new thermometer tablet and, from the finish line, through the radiofrequency (at 433 MHz), a group of doctors and physiologists will control their temperature. They will not have the power to stop anyone, but they will be able to notify their team so that, if they deem it convenient, they will do so. “We will suggest that they control it and, for example, do not force if they observe that it is dizzy. This is the only thing we can do » , explains the Spanish Josu Gómez, who will be in the team of specialists present in Qatar.

"We will also have a thermal camera at the finish line , so at each step we will be able to know both variables, body temperature and skin temperature, although they will not let us intervene in the competition," says Gomez, who has already used technology to prepare to Spanish fondistas and marchers. Since last June he has been working with them to study their individual response to heat, establish a personalized hydration plan and try to act in that line to the smallest detail.

For example, thanks to the thermometer tablets, in the tests they did at the Army Thermotron - a kind of giant oven where marchers trained in June - or in Doha itself, they discovered that the letters on the shirts multiply the heat and by that will compete with these bored "like a gruyere cheese".

«The tablets have been used for some time, although not so much in competition . The US Army created them 30 years ago and they have been commercialized for a few [ 60 euros per pill ]. They have already been seen in cycling or rowing, for example, ”says doctor Xabier Leibar , who already worked with these capsules to prepare Spanish Olympians before the 2004 Athens Olympics and who currently helps in the training of marchers like Júlia Takacs or Jesús Ángel García Bragado.

As defined, the tablets contain a small digital thermometer - with its battery - that sends the results to a nearby receiver , at a maximum of one meter, with an accuracy of two decimal places. Those currently used by the IAAF and the Spanish team are those sold by the French company BodyCap, although it has the competition of an American company that pioneered. In the latest tests with the Spanish marching team, the maximum observed was 40.6 degrees , but at the World Cycling World Championship in Doha three years ago it is known that one of the 10 best time trial players reached 41.4 degrees, an absolute barbarity . The risk of a heat stroke with these values ​​is very high.

«For preparation, together with other variables, it is a very useful tool, but its use in competition is more complicated. To be able to advise or not to withdraw an athlete , for example, it would be necessary to follow-up from many days before, to know more data ... I am a bit critical in that regard, ”says Leibar, who, as all his colleagues in the profession warns of the dangers of the scenario that awaits athletes in Qatar in a little over a month.

Although the background tests will begin at midnight Arabic, it is predicted that the thermometer will not drop below 33 or 34 degrees and that the humidity will be above 50% or 60% . The competition, in addition to much slower than usual, will be a scallop in which will win who suits best, not who is faster. The only positive point is that it will serve as preparation for the Tokyo Games of the following year where similar weather conditions are expected.

Big size

Miguel Ángel López could not take it

The marchers who have already tried the thermometer pads speak of a single drawback: their size. The manufacturer points to measures of 17.7 by 8.9 millimeters and users like Takacs or García Bragado admit that they are "a little difficult to swallow." "Miguel Ángel López was unable to do it," says the veteran marcher who adds that the fight for medals in the 50 kilometers of the Doha World Cup will be "pure Darwinism." The pill, of course, does not cause any stomach problems and is completely expelled after six or eight hours. There are athletes who have even picked up one of them - during the tests at the Army base they took one a day - to keep it as a souvenir. "They are for single use" , they joke, although, as a rule, they are always taken out of the box and activated in front of the athlete.

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