By Amy Tennery
EUGENE, Ore. (Reuters) – World Athletics said on Sunday that more countries than ever were represented in the finals of events at Eugene, the smallest city to host the biennial global meet.
Prior to Sunday’s final session, the sport’s governing body said a record 79 countries had finalists during the 10-day event, up from 76 in Doha three years ago. Liberia, Niger, Pakistan and Samoa had athletes in a final for the first time.
With roughly 175,000 residents, according to the most recent U.S. Census, Eugene, Oregon is far smaller than past hosts, most recently Doha, with a population of more than 2 million, and London, with approximately 9 million.
More than 1,700 athletes represented 179 countries and the Athlete Refugee Team in total at the meet, and Renee Washington, chief operating officer of USA Track & Field, said she was delighted with the global reach of the event.
“I was – and I continue to be even today – pleasantly surprised by the way the world embraced this very small community,” Washington told reporters on Sunday.
“This is a unique community in a unique part of the United States.”
Moved back by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meet was held on U.S. soil for the first time, a move designed in part to help grow an American audience in a crowded sports market where the landscape is dominated by main four men’s professional leagues – NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB.
Early crowds at the 15,000 capacity Hayward Field were thinner than the hosts may have hoped for but the World Championships managed to sell out the last session on Sunday, with Nigerian Tobi Amusan breaking the women’s 100 metres hurdles world record in the semi-final.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Eugene, Oregon, additional reporting by Nathan Frandino; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
