The question was asked on the eve of these World Athletics Championships whether the concertina-effect of global competitions caused by the Tokyo 2020 postponement was putting too much pressure - The Selecter! Maybe that’s the best song - on athletes.

The question was answered, thoughtfully, by the World Athletics President Sebastian Coe who, as he readily acknowledged, had given certain competitions a miss in his time but who is now actively involved in creating a new event to appear in the next otherwise global-competition-free year of 2026.

"When it comes to the global event we are talking about for 2026, I think there is space. Athletes have always had to triage, and they will always have to triage," he reflected.

"We want our athletes to compete more often. And on balance I don’t think they do.

"We also want our season to be longer, because May to September isn’t really sustainable. There are going to be a billion people watching these World Championships. We need more of these occasions, not fewer.

"So yes, there will be a balance to be struck. But I think top athletes are wanting more competition, and they are certainly wanting to derive greater financial security from our sport."

Asked directly if the unusual sequence of global competitions, with a World Championships taking place a year before the Olympics, could be responsible for the fact that one or two big athletes had pulled out of the World Championships, Coe responded: "Could be. I don’t know. I myself have pulled out of Championships where I just knew I was not mentally or physically in the right shape. We are not in a sport where we compel people to compete.

"And yes, I guess, its just the compaction that’s taken place off the back of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic postponement.

"I said at the time - and I don’t think many people believed me - that we would be seeing the impact of that for a number of years. Now the upside of that the way that the calendar has now fallen we have got athletics centre stage for five years and in essence right up to the 2028 Los Angeles Games and that’s a good thing.

"But it was always going to pose these challenges. I had to make such decisions myself as an athlete, with my coaching team. So yes, I’m guessing that if you are an athlete that is not in 100 per cent shape you don’t want to go to a World Championships, and the fact that there is an Olympic Games next year is probably a confounding factor as well."

Earlier in the day three US field athletes had considered the same broad question in the wake of a build-up that had seen the relatively late withdrawal of top athletes such as Belgium’s world and Olympic heptathlon champion Nafi Thiam and two US world champions from Eugene last year, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Michael Norman.

Katie Moon, the world and Olympic women’s pole vault champion, commented: "Unfortunately you are seeing it taking a little bit of a toll on some athletes, mentally and physically. It weighs on you a bit, it’s constant, no break mentality.

"I know I experienced that last year, a kind of mental and emotional crash. I also had some physical problems too, I had to have an injection for the first time this year in my ankle.

"It can be good because if you can get some good momentum going forwards you can use it to your advantage. But I think we are seeing some athletes, unfortunately, dealing with the negative side of that. But you just try and take it one day at a time and decide what’s best for you."

Moon was in the minority in her opinion, however.

Triple jumper Will Claye, competing in his ninth World Championships at the age of 32 - and seeking to add to his collection of two silvers and two bronze medals in the event - said: “Back to back to back to back to back - yeah, like Katie said, you’re seeing it with some athletes who have injuries popping up. But I think it’s good for the sport because those off years can leave the audience, the fans, hanging.

"I think having a championship every year is good for the sport. It’s a new thing for us and our coaches in terms of how we are training. We need to figure out ways of staying healthy.

"But I’m for it. Although the cause of it, the pandemic, wasn’t good, I’m for it. It’s really good to have something good to look forward to compete in.

"Some years I didn’t compete. Like in 2018. I didn’t compete at all because there was nothing to build towards. There was no Championship. This gives us a different type of motivation."

World bronze medallist in the women’s hammer, Janee' Kassanavoid, concurred with his view. "I certainly don’t mind it," she said. "It gives me something to look forward to. How do athletes survive without that, without having to be snappy, well-prepared? I like it. It’s always going to be a balance but it is a challenge to keep pushing through strong."

What you will miss as an athlete if you decide your nagging knee injury or sense of not being in the right frame of mind precludes you from competing is something we have already seen in bucket-loads so far in the newly built Budapest athletics arena -  the adrenaline effect.

I shared a car to the second day’s athletics with Kenya’s world 800m record holder David Rudisha, who is one of the Event Ambassadors here.

Very, very quietly - as always - the retired 34-year-old double Olympic and double world champion offered his own thoughts on the "Should I Stay or Should I Go" theme.

"I would usually come over to Europe for two or three early races, and then go back to Kenya to train," he said. "Then there would be a Championship. And after, four or five races, you don’t have to go back.

"You can train hard, you do 52, 51 second laps, maybe 51 and 50. But it is always different to competing.

"Adrenaline is so strange. Sometimes you see the sprinters, there is one false start, or a distraction where they have to wait, and their adrenaline is all gone. It only comes once!

"But really it is something. You feel it. When they announce your name and you hear the crowd, you think: ‘They know me! They are on my side!”

This is the legal magical elixir we have already witnessed often at these 19^th World Championships. It can bring athletes of any nationality to vivid life and performances beyond their normal limits. And if it is home support, even more so - the natural reward for all sporting hosts.

Seeing the faces of Hungarian athletes light up on the big screen as they hear the thunderous reception of the home crowd when they are announced, or as they acknowledge the support after their participation, it is very clear to see the galvanising effect of such direct contact.

The knowledge of such support supercharged the efforts of hammer thrower Bence Halász as he earned a bronze medal on his country’s National Day. Thunderous, guttural support came from the stands as he strove to mark the occasion with tangible reward.

It was the same for Rita Nemes as she won the first heat of the 800m in the heptathlon finale, borne along the finishing straight by sound, crossing the line just before her wobbling legs gave out; and for Xénia Krizsán, inspired to finish way higher than expected as she missed a medal by just one place.

There is no correct all-encompassing answer. But athletes need to think very carefully for denying themselves, and the sport, such opportunities to surprise and elevate themselves.