London triumph at last - British city to host 2017 World Championships

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

MONTE CARLO, Monaco:

It is third time lucky for London officials after the city yesterday staved off a strong challenge from Doha, Qatar, to land the right to host the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships.

London managed 16 votes compared to Doha's 10 at the IAAF Council Meeting here in Monaco yesterday, a result that in the end turned out to be a bit more comfortable than most observers were expecting.

This will be London's first time hosting what is considered the third largest sporting event in the world, and will follow installments in Moscow (2013) and Beijing (2015).

This triumph comes after failed attempts in 2001 and 2015 to host the event, and there were real doubts over whether or not the 2012 Olympic Games host would have better luck this time around, after Doha dangled a massive US$236-million funding 'carrot' at the IAAF decision-makers.

London's 45-minute presentation was led by IAAF vice-president Lord Sebastian Coe and included speeches from sports minister Hugh Robertson and London mayor Boris Johnson, as well as a video message from Prime Minister David Cameron.

Coe, who is also the chairman of the London 2012 team, while speaking at yesterday's post-announcement press conference, described the decision as a victory for track and field, and was explicitly thankful that the Olympic legacy would be protected, as the country gets set to stage two of the three biggest sporting events in a five-year span.

"The maintenance of the track-and-field legacy was absolutely crucial," Coe said.

"It's a great, great result and it's down to the clarity of the message that UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner and the team have been working on," Coe added.

"It was very important for us not to get spooked by inducements (from Doha) and just to make sure that people understood in London we have the stadium stuffed to the gunnels with people who look like they want to be there and know why they want to be there.

"Thank you, president, for your confidence in our bid, for your confidence in our ability to deliver on the large part of the legacy which you yourself were so instrumental in, and to my Council colleagues for again showing their confidence in our ability to deliver a great championships," Coe added in reference to IAAF president Lamine Diack, who made the announcement.

Meanwhile, Diack was happy for the international interest in the 2017 bid, and described the decision as a victory for the sport.

"We had never in the history of the bidding process for the IAAF World Championships in Athletics had this type of ceremony with this amount of interest in the TV and newspapers and so on. We have never had this level before with bids all good ... the result is good for our sport," said Diack.

"We have fought very hard to have this stadium staying a stadium of athletics," Diack added, pointing to English Premier League football club Tottenham's proposed occupying of the stadium after next year's Olympic Games, and their proposals to remove the running track.

Fellow London-based football club West Ham United also wanted to use the facility, and promised to keep the running track in place.

West Ham subsequently won exclusive use of the stadium, but Olympic organisers then backtracked under threat of legal action and will, instead, lease it for a range of different purposes.

London was awarded the 2005 IAAF World Championships, but had to withdraw when a proposed new athletics stadium in north London never materialised and the event went to Helsinki, Finland, instead.