Empty seats and ghostly silence have been the sad feature of these world championships – it is a PR disaster for the sport

Moments after the greatest 10.83 seconds of her life, the British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith grabbed a union flag from her mother, Julie, and began a lap of honour to celebrate her world championship 100m silver medal. But as she trotted round the 40,000-seat Khalifa stadium in Doha on Sunday night she was greeted by banks of empty seats and a ghostly silence.

Observers reckoned there were no more than 1,000 people still in attendance, and many of them were journalists tapping away to deadline. Asher-Smith’s mother later tweeted she had seen more spectators at England Athletics’ age-group championships in Bedford.