The heat and humidity of Doha is so unremitting for the athletes, and the scheduling of events so unappealing to residents that the blue-riband sprint finals took place in front of pitiful audiences. The marathons started at midnight, yet still world-class runners dropped, literally.

But the greater cloud is once again the aroma of drug abuse. Not the Russians this time, how could it be given that the IAAF excluded all bar a handful of "authorised neutral athletes" deemed untainted by the Russian doping saga.