[RhysJR]

Something that caught my eye on the radio side of things is that Katharine Merry now seems to be the athletics commentator going forward following Mike Costello's departure for DAZN last year.

That was something that caught my attention as well. Katharine was also the 5 Live reporter/commentator during the London Diamond League a few weeks back, so this looks like it could be a more than a one-off appointment. Interestingly, Katharine has been the regular in-stadium commentator, along with Geoff Wightman, for major events in recent years - certainly they covered the 2021 Olympics, the 2022 World Championships and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Ronald McIntosh (a former occasional BBC TV athletics voice) has been the most often heard commentator for 5 Live's boxing coverage in the past year or so, so it appears that the joint role of athletics and boxing commentator has finally come to an end after many years.

And the athletics schedule here.  Gabby will share hosting duties with Janette - assumed Gabby wouldn't be as thought the World Cup Final was being hosted on location.
www.bbc.co.uk 

I would assume Gabby could join on the Tuesday evening, travel and jetlag allowing. As a reference, Simon Brotherton tweeted that he arrived in Glasgow 36 hours after leaving the Women's World Cup and was on air from Australia on Tuesday morning (our time) and in Glasgow on Thursday evening. The other theory could be that Alex Scott hosting the final as she did host the BBC's only England game thus far.

To the coverage at large, I'm pleasantly surprised that a lot of the evening session coverage is on BBC One - I guess it's more cost effective than any new content/repeats but rare that sport is aired on primetime BBC One. Nice to see the Red Button channel get namechecked for a few sessions for a change (think it's mainly the race walks).

The additional half hour of evening coverage on BBC Three sounds interesting. At the London Diamond League a few weeks back, the studio team was not heard from during the main block of action (1400-1600, the usual Diamond League broadcast), with all the studio analysis and interviews being aired in a 30 minute block from 16:00 with Jeanette Kwayke doubling up as presenter and interviewer. I would hope that the BBC Three block would be something that takes inspiration from this format as the BBC studio coverage can be a little bit too much*, though was better last year than it has been methinks. Worth noting that The World Championships have a bit more breathing space than the Diamond League's schedule so there is a better balance most likely available.

There is no secondary reporter named if Jeanette is presenting for a few days, so it might be possible that like in London, Jeanette presents from trackside. Sarah Mulkerrins did the job at the World and European Championships last year.

*PS It was quite annoying yesterday seeing Clare Balding talk about how great the Cycling World Championships yesterday a few times with the action being audible and slightly visible behind her (PPS It's good there is on the iPlayer an uninterrupted feed of the track action, without the inserts from Clare et al. which is great if you would want to see it all).

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I missed this when it was announced, but the World Atheltics Championships will also be aired on Eurosport for the first time in a few editions. This is a pan-European deal agreed with the EBU and ESPN.

worldathletics.org 



I can't help but comapre and contrast the athletics with swimming world championships, and how the latter got no TV coverage from either of the UK Olympic broadcasters, despite swimming being the equivalent to athletics in the first week of an Olympic schedule, and swimming being more likely to be a more successful sport for Great Britain in Paris. Obviously we don't know how much at fult the broadcasters or World Aquatics are for the almost coverage blackout the swimming had last week.