World Championships organisers improving Beijing air quality

Organisers have put measures in place to improve Beijing's air quality

Organisers of the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing have put special measures in place to try and ensure blue skies and improved air quality in the Chinese capital.

The tactic bears resemblance to the steps taken to address the city's appalling pollution record in the build-up to the 2008 Olympics.

In 2008, marathon world record holder and asthma sufferer Haile Gebrselassie said he wouldn't take part in the race. "The pollution in China is a threat to my health," he said at the time.

This year, British athletes have been given a pollution pack by Team GB nutritionists containing antioxidants in order to help them make the transition.

Although there appears to have been a slight improvement in air quality over the last couple of months, a recent study conducted by physicists at the University of California estimates 1.6 million people die each year in China from heart, lung and stroke-related problems due to polluted air.

Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium hosted athletics at 2008 Olympics

But a spokesman for the Beijing 2015 Organising Committee has confirmed that 'air conditioning' has been put in place for two phases in the lead up to the World Athletes Championships.

Old vehicles – amounting to an estimated 6million - were banned from the city some months ago while two old coal power stations had been shut down. In addition, construction sites have been closed down during the championships.

Most controversially as far as Beijing's 14m inhabitants are concerned are the traffic monitoring measures that have been implemented just as they were during the 2008 Olympics.

Within the central five 'rings' of the city, only cars with odd numbers on their licence plates are allowed to pass one day, the next day those with even numbers.

China is rated as one of the worst countries for air pollution and air quality with the World Health Organisation. But Beijing 2015 organisers say the measures put in place in 2008 have in the main remained and claim the city has better air quality and more 'blue sky' days than it did over a decade ago.

The World Athletics Championships begin on Saturday in Beijing at the Bird's Nest Stadium and run until August 30.