World Athletics (WA) President, Sebastian Coe, believes the World Athletics Championships due to start in Budapest on Saturday is coming in a season that has been uniquely promising so far in terms of performances.
Looking ahead to the event that will take place 40 years after the initial edition in Helsinki, Coe predicted it could be ‘a World Championship for the Ages.’
He described how he had been at the Florence Diamond League and seen Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon become the first woman to run 1500m inside 3min 50sec.
Coe added: “I wasn’t as lucky as my CEO, Jon Ridgeon, who was in Paris the following weekend – he saw three world records.
“And it’s sort of continued from there.
“And it’s not all been Diamond League.
“Some of the top performances we have seen have been in the Continental Tour and the National Championships – with Ryan Crouser, for instance, adding to his own world record in the shot put.
“And you look at other performances – Femke Bol the other day, breaking her European 400m hurdles record, Karsten Warholm already running under 47 seconds.
“Wherever you look we’ve got some really outstanding performers.”
Everyone staying healthy is the key, Coe admitted.
“But I think we could well be witnessing a World Championships for the Ages in terms of the quality of the performance of the athletes this year.
“This is the biggest event of the year.
“I never tire of saying we are a truly global sport.
“We have 2,000 athletes heading to Budapest, and over 200 competitive countries.
“And you look at broadcast – we will have 300 hours of broadcast.
“We’ve got our own host broadcaster taking about 400 people out there, with outside broadcasting units and about 120 cameras.”
Hungary’s capital Budapest has embraced the event.
“We will have around two-and-a-half thousand volunteers,” Coe said.
“This is a city that is well prepared for a big event.
“And having spent quite a lot of time in Budapest in the past year or so, there’s a level of excitement there that I think will bode well.”
The majority of events will take place in the 35,000-capacity National Athletics Centre that has been newly built on the banks of the River Danube.
“It is a beautiful new stadium,” said Coe, who ran a lap in it on a recent visit to the Hungarian capital.”
“I think the atmosphere in there will be terrific.”
–Insidethegames.biz
