MONACO, Nov 18 — Qatar’s emergence as a global sporting hub gained further clout when Doha was chosen as host city for the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships today.

The fast-growing city alongside the Arabian Gulf will become the first from the Middle East to stage the blue ribbon event.

Overlooked for the 2017 championships in favour of London, the Qatari capital was selected ahead of rival bids from 1992 Olympic hosts Barcelona and the American city of Eugene.

It is a timely boost for Qatar that has again found itself dragged into controversy over world soccer governing body FIFA’s decision to award the desert nation the 2022 World Cup.

The process by which it was chosen has come under intense scrutiny and FIFA is under pressure to make public a report of an investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Russia won the right to stage the 2018 version.

FIFA’s Ethics Committee found no grounds for reopening the controversial process that has been plagued by allegations of corruption in a boiled down summary of a report – attracting widespread criticism.

However, IAAF vice president Dahlan Al-Hamad and head of the Doha bid, said the choice of Doha was a “great opportunity” to take athletics to new regions.

“The World Championships for us will be a unique one,” he told a news conference in Monte Carlo’s Fairmont Hotel.

“We will organise it to a high level and these championships will expand the horizons of the IAAF.”

The 17th World Championships take place at the newly-modernised Khalifa Stadium at the end of September and early October, later than usual, to spare competitors from the worst of the searing desert heat.

Temperatures in Doha at that time of year are typically about 35 degrees Celcius during the morning and 30 degrees in the evenings, no more stifling than at previous world championship venues like Tokyo and Seville.

Doha is already an established venue on the IAAF Diamond League circuit and hosted the 2012 World Indoors Championships.

A spokesman for the Qatar Olympic Committee said that the championships would be an opportunity to show the country in a positive light.

“We thank God for this win and it was due to the efforts of the Qatari people and youth that took part in the committee,” Sheikh Hamed bin abdelrahman al-Thani told Reuters.

“This win is not a strange thing to Qatar and by hosting this event we want to reflect a positive image of Qatar as a country that is able to host international sporting events all year round.”

Eugene, known as Track Town, was hoping to become the first American city to host the event that began in 1983 in Helsinki.

Barcelona was attempting to become the second Spanish city to host the event, following Seville in 1999. — Reuters