Coe announces plans to run for IAAF presidency
By Ossian Shine
LONDON (Reuters) - The man who successfully delivered the London 2012 Olympic Games on Thursday launched his bid for the presidency of world athletics' governing body, one of the most powerful jobs in global sport.
Double Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe confirmed he would run for the top job at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), when Senegalese Lamine Diack steps down in 2015.
Coe has been an IAAF vice-president since 2007, and will unveil an election manifesto and a vision for the sport and its governing body in the coming weeks.
"I want us to have a renewed focus on engagement with young people and a real understanding of the global landscape that is shaping the next generation of athletes and fans," the 58-year-old Briton said.
"If we are guided by these principles as we review and reform our sport then I am convinced that athletics can enter a new era with confidence and ensure a bright and exciting future."
Having headed the successful London bid to host the 2012 Summer Games, and chairing the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) that oversaw the global sporting gathering, it comes as no surprise that former Member of Parliament Coe has switched his ambitions to his first love.
"As I speak to friends and colleagues around our great sport I appreciate that we are entering a very important time for athletics and that it is the right time to open up a discussion about the future," he said.
"For as long as I can remember, I have woken knowing that athletics, in some way, would shape my day. As a young boy, running was the thing that I loved beyond anything else and I have been hugely fortunate that athletics has been at the centre of my life ever since."
Coe is likely to face opposition for the presidency from Ukrainian former pole vault champion Sergey Bubka.
A fellow IAAF vice-president, Bubka's reputation took something of a hit last year, however, when he finished bottom of the final round of voting to select a new International Olympic Committee president.
Bubka received four of the 93 second-round votes cast in Buenos Aires. Thomas Bach was elected president with 49.
Coe, alongside Steve Ovett, ignited the British public's interest in athletics in the 1980s, a decade considered the golden years for Britain on the track.
(Writing by Julian Linden; Editing by John O'Brien and Justin Palmer)
