IAAF President Sebastian Coe speaks during a press conference at the Khalifa International Stadium, yesterday.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe yesterday praised the world championships in Doha as an ‘outstanding’ edition in terms of quality of performances and the breakthrough of young athletes.
Speaking to journalists ahead of the final day events at the Khalifa Stadium, Coe said that 28 percent of the medallists at the championships were younger than 24.
“Our sport is in pretty good shape. The best world championships on athletes’ performances we have ever had,” the former middle distance Olympian said.
Coe said Qatar has a history of hosting world class athletic events from the late 80s and 90s, championships in which he took part as an athlete.
“Qatar is not a virgin territory in terms of hosting sports events. I have been taking part in the athletic events. It is really important the sport moves around the world, and it cannot forge its relationships based on political structures or transitory political systems,” he added.
He hailed the fact that 40 countries had won medals ahead of the last seven finals, which also showed that it is right to hold the Championships in new markets.
“We live in a global society. We must share the sport with more than nine or 10 places,” Coe insisted.
Coe named sport ‘the best diplomat’, saying: “That is why sport will continue to work and sweat as hard as it does to make social change.”
“We are not competitors, we are collaborators and organisations that are smart are actually partnering as they realise they can elicit that change,” he added.
Coe also defended Holland’s Sifan Hassan, who followed up her 10,000m gold by winning the 1500m on Saturday.
The 26-year-old was coached by Alberto Salazar, who was last week banned for four years by the United States Anti-Doping Agency for doping violations.
Coe again questioned if it was fair to put athletes immediately under suspicion.
“Sadly it is the world we live in. It is inevitable that outstanding performances, given the broader nature of trust, are permanently questioned. I’m sure that when I was breaking three world records in 41 days back in 1979, there were people looking slightly askance at what I did.
“I think we have to be quite careful about how we draw conclusions from the performance paradigm and shifts in that performance.”
