Sebastian Coe elected IAAF president

Sebastian Coe was elected president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Wednesday (August 19) after beating Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka by 115 votes to 92 in a ballot of the governing body’s 50th Congress.

The former Olympic 1,500 meters champion will replace Senegalese Lamine Diack, who has run the body for the last 16 years, at the end of the Aug. 22-30 world championships in Beijing.

Coe’s initial term will be for four years.

The 58-year-old Briton takes over as head of a sport battling a public relations crisis with the IAAF accused of failing in its duty to address doping amid allegations that blood doping was rife in the sport.

Coe has defended the IAAF’s record on doping and said that under his leadership the sport would move towards setting up its own anti-doping agency.

Although media were not allowed into the actual IAAF congress hall where Wednesday’s session took place, the results were displayed to them on a screen in a separate room. (REUTERS)