New Vice-president Coe Climbs Iaaf Ladder

Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, has taken
his first step towards the presidency of the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF) after being elected as a vice-president of the
organisation.

Following a meeting of the world athletics governing body in Osaka ahead of
next week’s World Championships, Coe was voted in as a vice president of the
organization along with three others – Sergey Bubka of Ukraine, American Robert
Hersh and Dahlan Al-Hamad from Qatar.

The quartet will serve four-year terms underneath IAAF president Lamine Diack
who himself was voted in for a further term of office running through until
2011.

Diack will retire following the completion of his final four-year stint at
which point it is likely that one of his four vice presidents, including Coe,
will be appointed to the top post.

While Coe has been earmarked among the early favourites for the presidency in
2011, he played down the issue saying it was too early to be discussing what
would happen after Diack’s retirement.