Beijing To Host 2015 World Athletics Champs
The 2015 IAAF World Athletics Championships will be hosted by China’s capital Beijing, it has been announced.
It marks the return of athletics to the iconic Bird’s Nest Stadium which was the centrepiece of the 2008 Olympics.
Lamine Diack, head of athletics’ world governing body the IAAF said: ‘To help build up our sport in a country of 1.6bn is a great opportunity.’
London withdrew its bid earlier this month because of uncertainty over the future of the 2012 Olympic Stadium.
For China, it will represent the most important sporting event that the country has hosted since the successful 2008 Olympic Games.
Beijing, whose metropolitan area is home to almost 17m, will become the fourth Asian city to host the World Athletics Championships after Tokyo in 1991, Osaka in 2007 and Daegu, South Korea, the venue for 2011.
