Coe delighted to secure 2012 legacy

Sebastian Coe

Published: 6:54am, 12th November 2011
Updated: 6:03pm, 12th November 2011

Sebastian Coe is celebrating completing some "unfinished business" after London was awarded the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

Coe led London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics six years ago and the IAAF vice-president and London 2012 chairman knew he had to fulfil his promise for the Olympic Stadium to have an athletics legacy, something taken care of when London beat Doha 16-10 in a vote of the IAAF Council in Monaco.

"I had an urge to complete unfinished business, to cement the unambiguous vision of connecting with and inspiring the next generation," Coe said.

"I put forward a vision that was an important one. I fought very hard, along with the sports minister and the mayor, for the maintenance of a track and field facility and it was really important that we got across the line here.

"No country in the world has made the kind of infrastructure investment in track and field in the last 10 years and this was our opportunity to build off the back of 2012."

Doha vowed to host a World Championships "like never before" thanks to a budget of USD200million for a solar-powered, temperature controlled stadium, while also pledging a new sponsor to bankroll various IAAF events to the tune of USD29million and offering to pay the event's USD7.2million prize fund.

However, London's bid team also crucially pledged to pay the prize fund in a planned "late reveal", while also stressing they could offer a full stadium and were the preferred choice of athletes due to the city's climate and hosting the championships in the traditional window of late July and early August, rather than September as proposed by Doha.

In addition, Prime Minister David Cameron penned a personal letter to the IAAF council members on Thursday, emphasising the strength of governmental support for the bid.

"These are always complicated days because I wear two hats, one as a bidder and one as a representative of the sport globally," added Coe, whose ambitions of succeeding Lamine Diack as IAAF president in 2015 have been boosted by the decision.

"Mercifully both hats have pointed today to London. We need to globalise our sport and yes, that sometimes means taking it to challenging environments and I am sure we will be looking to broaden the sport in all sorts of territories. But London was the right bid at the right time and it meets all our domestic legacy commitments."