Great Britain’s stars get go-ahead to skip World Championships in Doha if they believe competing would be detrimental to goals at 2020 Olympics

• Britain’s leading athletes will be free to skip this year’s World Championships
• The Worlds start later than usual at the end of September and run into October
• That leaves only nine-and-a-half months before Tokyo Olympics in July 2020

By

Riath Al-Samarrai for the Daily Mail

Published:
17:30 EST, 14 February 2019

|
Updated:
18:00 EST, 14 February 2019

Britain’s leading athletes have been given the freedom to skip this year’s world championships in Doha if they believe it would be detrimental to their goals at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

A conundrum has arisen due to the unprecedented lack of time between the two events, with the Worlds in Doha starting later than usual at the end of September 2019 and running into October, which leaves only nine and a half months before the Olympics in July 2020.

The turnaround is roughly six weeks shorter than has been the case since 1983, when the world championships were inaugurated and slotted in the year before the Olympics in each cycle.

Britain’s leading athletes will be free to skip this year’s World Championships in Doha

The reduced gap is proving a headache for coaches and athletes, whose preparations need to incorporate two major peaks in performance in an unusually short period.

Sportsmail understands that senior figures at British Athletics have attempted to address the situation by giving their top-level athletes assurances that while competing in Doha is preferable, it is not essential if there is a fear that it will compromise performances in Tokyo, which remains the greater priority.

British Athletics told Sportsmail on Thursday: ‘British Athletics have not actively encouraged British athletes to the miss the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha.

‘With the later than usual staging of these World Championships and the 2020 Olympic Games following less than 10 months later, athletes and coaches have been reminded to plan for the 2019 and 2020 seasons appropriately and make smart decisions with the ultimate goal to succeed in Tokyo.’

The scheduling difficulties have been brought about by the need to schedule the Doha Worlds later in the year owing to the climate in the Middle East.

The Worlds start later than usual, leaving only nine-and-a-half months before Tokyo Olympics

 

Advertisement

There have been limits to Son Heung-min’s attempts to acclimatise to a new life 5,000 miles from home.

The South Korean gave short shrift, for example, to the notion that he might enjoy playing golf, as British footballers are often inclined to do. 

‘You hit the ball as far as you can and then you search for it. That’s boring,’ he said a few years back. ‘I’d rather stay at home, relax and listen to music.’ 

Son Heung-min has been invaluable to Tottenham in the absence of Harry Kane and Dele Alli

Yet SuperSONic, as the 26-year-old was depicted in a recent Spurs in-house video, is fostering an improbable air of mutual fascination between South Korea and north London, which the sublimity of his performance against Borussia Dortmund took to new levels on Wednesday night. 

The volume of work Son puts in is at times overlooked, though his significance as Tottenham’s focal point in the absence of Harry Kane and Dele Alli these last weeks has been unmistakable.

Tottenham have won all 13 games in which Son has scored this season and have found him to be indefatigable. 

In his first three games back after returning from South Korea’s Asian Cup campaign, Son scored an 80th-minute equaliser against Watford, an 83rd-minute winner against Newcastle and a stoppage-time third goal which ended Leicester’s hopes of a comeback. All of that before his crucial opener against Dortmund. 

His excellent form has only heightened his superstar status back home in South Korea

Fans flock to see the national hero, while 12 South Korean journalists follow him full time

‘I’ve played with some great players and against some great players, and Sonny is special,’ Jan Vertonghen said. ‘You underestimate that because of the work he puts in, then his quality, outstanding left foot, right foot. He can play striker, left wing, right wing, he can play as a 10.’

His compatriots were watching. The five most searched stories on the huge South Korean portal Naver after the game were all about Tottenham or the man universally known as ‘Sonny’.

No fewer than 12 full-time South Korean journalists are following Son around at Spurs and the Seoul-based media needs every one of them. 

The build-up to last February’s North London derby on one of the South Korean sports networks was preceded by a 30-minute documentary just about him. 

A group of fans show their admiration for Son during Spurs’ recent win over Leicester 

When the game began, Tottenham’s badge was replaced by a picture of Son’s head on the scoreline graphic.

Spurs have come up with some creative output of their own. Their video of Son’s searing goal against Chelsea, after he had sliced through the opposition’s midfield in November, was given the full video game treatment, a la Sonic the Hedgehog.

Other creations are more homespun, like the Hello Kitty style ‘Sonny’ hats being worn around Wembley. The fanatical following has been building through his four years at the club, which began so inauspiciously that Mauricio Pochettino had to talk him out of leaving in 2016.

Tottenham cashed in on his popularity – their fan base has grown 30 per cent in South Korea

One brief visit to Seoul in May 2017 was described as ‘like Beatlemania’ as 500 fans showed up

Within a year, the club had appointed a new licensing agent in South East Asia after finding an immediate 30 per cent growth in their South Korean fan base. The Korean tyre-maker Kumo is now one of the club’s main financial partners.

When Son and three team-mates peeled off from the Spurs squad touring Hong Kong to pay a brief visit to Seoul in May 2017, the Incheon International Airport was deluged with 500 fans.

‘It was like Beatlemania,’ says one witness. There was a similar effect when Spurs took Son to Koreatown, Los Angeles, last summer. ‘Pandemonium,’ says the same source. 

It helps that he has demonstrated a quality of spoken English way beyond anything South Korea’s Premier League trailblazer Park Ji-sung — one of Son’s heroes — could offer at Manchester United.

However the No 7 won’t be going native any time soon. When the magazine FourFourTwo suggested his excellent language skills at Hamburg, his first European club, perhaps made him feel half-German, half-Korean, he gave the notion short shrift.

Son scored for Tottenham against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday in the Champions League

Since returning from the Asian Cup, he has found the net four times in all competitions

‘Oh no, no. I’m Korean through and through. When I’m not training or playing, you can find me at home, watching Korean films,’ he replied.

He revealed in the same interview that he made a point of learning German swearwords before he left Korea, because ‘you can’t have people calling you names while you just look at them, smiling politely’. Evidence, if any were needed, that beneath the self-effacing exterior there resides steel.

Tottenham staff speak of him with unstinting affection. His different handshake for each team-mate is legendary and he has held Korean barbecues for them, bringing in food from a local Korean restaurant to the modest apartment he shares with his parents.

His form has won him fans from north London to Korea and everywhere in between

His profile in South Korea is monumental, propelling him to the Forbes Asia Rich List’s ’30 under 30′ list, among others.

The forward doesn’t go in hugely for social media, as many in his celebrity bracket do. Just 66 Instagram posts — delivering him a following of 1.91m — and seemingly no presence on Twitter.

However his presence at Spurs has been immense this season, winning him fans from north London to Korea and everywhere in between.