Coe pips Bubka to top job, vows 鈥榸ero tolerance鈥 for drugs cheats
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Sebastian Coe pipped Sergey Bubka in a tight vote to become world athletics chief yesterday and vowed 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥 for drug cheats, who have thrown the sport into turmoil.
The British former Olympic champion runner received 115 votes to Bubka鈥檚 92, and will take over from 82-year-old IAAF president Lamine Diack with the fight against doping at the top of his agenda.
Coe likened his victory, at an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Congress in Beijing, to celebrating the birth of his four children.
鈥淔or most of us in this room, we would conclude that the birth of our children is a big moment in our lives, probably the biggest,鈥 London-born Coe, 58, told the congress.
鈥淏ut... being given the opportunity to work with all of you and shape the future of our sport is probably the second biggest and (most) momentous occasion of my life.
鈥淚t鈥檚 my sport, it鈥檚 my passion and it鈥檚 the thing that I鈥檝e always wanted to do.鈥
After a series of doping controversies rocked the build-up to the August 22-30 world championships in Beijing, the Briton said he and his new team would be 鈥渧igilant鈥 in their crusade against cheats.
鈥淭here is a zero tolerance to abuse of doping in my sport and I will maintain that to the very highest level of vigilance,鈥 vowed Coe, who won Olympic 1500m golds in the 1980 and 1984 Games.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want the thought that trust and integrity are only something that are rooted in challenges around doping in sport or doping in track and field. There is a universal problem with that in sport and we recognise that and we鈥檝e been the lead role for that as long as I鈥檝e been in the sport.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 something I鈥檓 very proud of, that鈥檚 something I鈥檒l very happily defend, how we approached that.鈥
Bubka had also stood for re-election as IAAF vice-president, and the pole vault great from Ukraine was duly voted in to the post along with Qatari Dahlan al-Hamad, Cameroon鈥檚 Hamad Kalkaba Malboum and Cuban Alberto Juantorena.
鈥淭his is my life. I continue to serve athletics with dignity and big passion,鈥 said Bubka.
鈥淚 am a happy man... it was a great and interesting campaign, which is really important for this sport.鈥
Diack said track and field would prosper with one of athletics鈥 鈥渂ona fide sons鈥 Coe.
Coe鈥檚 first job as IAAF president will be to defend athletics from stinging allegations of widespread doping which threaten to cast a dark cloud over the world championships which kick off on Saturday.
The credibility of athletics and the IAAF has come under attack in recent weeks, after British and German media said a leaked database of 12,000 tests had revealed 鈥渆xtraordinary鈥 levels of doping.
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