Bubka Says London Bid to Host ’17 WAC Hurt by Previous Failings

Senior vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Sergey Bubka has claimed that London’s bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships will be harmed by Britain’s three previous failures to secure the event.

Britain’s bid to host the 2003 Championships were shelved after plans to build an athletics track in the new national stadium at Wembley were abandoned.

In 2005, despite London being awarded the Championships, the city pulled out of staging them because then Prime Minister Tony Blair backtracked on the promised that the Government would build a brand new stadium at Picketts Lock.

The latest failure for the 2015 World Championships came at the end of last year after the Government claimed they were unable to commit to backing the bid because of uncertainty over the future of the Olympic Stadium, with Tottenham declaring they would remove the athletics track if awarded the venue. 

Bubka says the trio of disasters is damaging for Britain’s bid to host the 2017 Championships, stating at SportAccord: “I can’t speak for all of my colleagues at the IAAF but this is not positive for Great Britain. This is not positive at all.

“I think we must be honest. When you pull out once, okay. When you pull out a second time, this is not good. When you pull out a third time, serious questions must be asked and it is understandable that the IAAF grow tired of this.

“I understand that sometimes there are serious problems in bidding for events but three times?

“Athletics in the UK has a great opportunity with hosting the IAAF World Championships in London in 2017 but three failed bids would not be good for anyone.”

London faces opposition from three cities to host the 2017 competition as Doha, Budapest and an unnamed city from Spain, likely to be Barcelona or Madrid, have put themselves forward to host the event.

Bubka added that he is delighted it has been confirmed that the Olympic Stadium will have an athletics legacy after London 2012 but stated that this does not mean that they will be easily awarded the 2017 Athletics World Championships.

“I spoke very strongly last year about how important it was for London to have an athletics legacy at the Olympic Stadium and I am very happy that they have honoured this commitment they made in Singapore in 2005,” he said.

“I am very happy that now there is legacy for the young people and London will have a strong bid for 2017. But this does not mean they will be awarded the World Championships automatically.

“There are some very strong bids and it will be very interesting to see who will be the winning candidate.”