London’s newly built Olympic Stadium to stage World Athletics Championships
Last updated 11/14/2011 10:45:36 AM
London’s Olympic Stadium to stage World Athletics Championships
Sebastian Coe has always been a winner and it should come as no surprise that he has led the United Kingdom to another triumph.
Lord Coe built the campaign to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to London, beating favourites Paris, and he has now captured the World Athletics Championship to be held in the United Kingdom for the first time after London was selected ahead of the favourites Doha to host the 2017 event.
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack declared that London had beaten Doha 16-10, a remarkable margin.
The English capital, which failed with bids to host the 2001 and 2015 Worlds, will, of course, use the 2012 Olympic Stadium.
Bid leader Coe said: "This bid has been developed by athletes and athletics, for athletes and athletics."
He added: "We believe 2017 will cement the clear, unambiguous vision we offered the world in 2005 [when London was awarded the 2012 Olympics], a vision that promised a real legacy through unprecedented levels of investment in our new national stadium.
"This is the natural continuation of the work being done on 2012."
UK Athletics boss and bid chairman Ed Warner revealed that the budget for the championships would now cover the £5m prize fund, as Doha offered to do, bringing their oil billions into the game.
Warner said: "I'm not a veteran of bids but people tell me always keep a late reveal.
"We planned it for some time. There was no knee-jerk reaction."
World youth champion sprinter Jodie Williams, 18, and Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Denise Lewis made the final presentations to the IAAF.
Williams, who will be 23 in 2017, stressed her "ultimate dream" is to compete for a senior world title in front of a home crowd.
A message of support from Prime Minister David Cameron was also played to the council.
British athletes and politicians have welcomed the decision with World, European and Commonwealth 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene admitting he "had a huge smile" on his face.
London had been originally set to host the 2005 championships after they were originally awarded to the city.
However, after plans to build a 43,000-capacity stadium at Picketts Lock in the north of the city were abandoned by the government as too expensive after an original promise by Prime Minister Tony Blair.
UK Athletics suggestion that the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield be used instead but this was rejected by the IAAF and the championships were awarded instead to Helsinki, which hosted the first event in 1983.
Coe, with his extensive contacts within government and sport, was able to pull all the strings together, trumping Doha with the late offer to fund the prize money.
It means that the Olympics will produce the promised legacy and athletics, if handled properly, can look forward to a new golden era after the problems of drugs in the recent past.