Coe, 58, beat Ukrainian pole vault great Sergei Bubka by 115 votes to 92 in today’s vote and is poised to replace incumbent Lamine Diack at the end of the month, following the World Championships.
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Britain’s Sebastian Coe has beaten Sergey Bubka in a tight vote to become the new president of the global Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) at a time when the world athletics body is battling a series of doping controversies.
Former Olympic 1500m champion Lord Coe is the new president of the IAAF, the body that governs world athletics.
“I am deeply honoured that our sport has placed its trust in me”.
Outgoing IAAF chief Diack said he was delighted to finally have a successor and, in particular, one who had dedicated his life to the sport.
“It’s a great moment we’ve just lived”, said Diack, who received an award as an honorary life president of the IAAF.
In the men’s 100 meters, Usain Bolt, by far the sport’s biggest star, could quite possibly lose to Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter who has twice been banned for doping violations and has recorded the world’s fastest times in the event this season.
He starts his new job on August. 31, the day after the world championships end in Beijing.
He said: “I made the point absolute unflinchingly (to the Congress) this morning, you have a president who will devote full-time attention to the management and the direction of the IAAF”.
The credibility of both athletics and the IAAF has come under repeated attack in recent weeks, after British and German media said a leaked database of 12,000 tests had revealed “extraordinary” levels of doping.
Throughout this summer, the IAAF Fantasy Diamond Race has offered athletics fans all over the world the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the sport by predicting which athletes will perform best at each of the IAAF Diamond League meetings. I have always done it together with you, my friends. I will continue to serve athletics with passion.
“Protecting clean athletes in these circumstances also means we are not making allegations against athletes who enjoy the presumption of innocence”, Bach said.
“We will be holding these championships in Beijing and people will say ’80 per cent of the athletes are bound to test positive, ‘ but no, this is totally untrue”, Diack added.
It is natural to wonder why the first reaction of a contemporary would be to say of someone accused of involvement in doping that they expect them to be able to defend themselves, rather than merely acknowledging that there is a case to answer.
“I’ve had the joys of Olympic competition, I’ve had the joys of being part of something special in London a few years ago, but this for me is the pinnacle”, he said.
It was encouraging on Wednesday to find out that Coe, unlike Diack and some of his predecessors, will not remain in power for decades.
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“If transparency is an issue, we would welcome any investigation from the only authorized body to investigate – the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)”, the IAAF’s anti-doping manager, Thomas Capdevielle, told CNN.
