The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Friday awarded London the 2017 World Championships, beating Doha in a head-to-head contest.
The Gulf state of Qatar was unable to repeat its recent success on the global sporting stage after last year being chosen by FIFA to host the 2022 World Cup last year. Qatar has also submitted a formal bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
The official Doha 2017 Twitter page posted a message shortly after the decision was announced. It read: “IAAF has decided. Congratulations to London. Thanks for all your support.”
“Despite an excellent challenge from Doha, the London team put together a
cracking bid which has paid off with this fantastic news today,” London
mayor Boris Johnson said after IAAF president Lamine Diack opened an
envelope revealing the winning city’s name.
The IAAF decision by 16 votes to 10 followed final presentations by the two bid teams in Monaco during which the Qatar team offered a $236m funding package to the IAAF, including underwriting an $80m budget for the event itself, as well as spending $120m on construction of an Athletics City and revamping the main stadium.
On top they will provide a sponsor for all major IAAF events leading up to 2017, plus Al Jazeera TV rights, worth $29m. They will also underwrite the $7.2m prize fund.
The Doha presentation also insisted that every seat will be sold to every session of every event and temperatures in the stadium will be tailored to each individual event.
But the London presentation, which included appearances by former world champions Seb Coe and Denise Lewis and the London mayor, also pledged to sell every ticket available for the event and offered to cover the $7.2m prize fund.
The presentation also included a video message of support from the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron.
Earlier in the day, Britain’s 400m hurdler Dai Greene, who struck gold at the 2011 world championships in South Korea, tweeted: “Let’s be honest, nobody wants the 2017 world champs to be on the desert in Doha. Bring it to London.”
The last time a British team campaigned for a major event it ended in a humiliating defeat for England’s 2018 World Cup bid and it has twice previously failed to win hosting rights for the track and field world championships.
In October, officials from the IAAF said they were impressed by Qatar’s plans to build an air-cooled stadium to host the 2017 event.
Bob Hersh, chairman of the Evaluation Commission, said: “Doha is a city that has shown fantastic growth and development, and I’ve been impressed by how that growth has continued since my most recent visit here last year.
“There is no doubt that the Doha team are extremely motivated and dedicated to making a very strong bid, where innovation and new ideas take centre stage,” Hersh added in a statement posted on the IAAF website.
Abdulla Al Zaini, president of the Qatar Association of Athletics Federation (QAAF) and executive director of Doha 2017 Bid Committee, said he wanted to set “new standards” for hosting the world Championships.
The IAAF officials visited main venues that are being proposed for the 2017 event including the 40,000 seat Khalifa Stadium that was used for the Asian Games, and a number of training and warm up facilities located in what is called the Aspire Zone.
The proposed main competition site, Khalifa Stadium, is set to be refurbished by 2016, just prior to the Championships.
The delegation also visited the site of Athletics City, which is part of a new development of luxury apartments.
Ed Warner, chairman of UK Athletics and the 2017 bid, warned earlier this week that the IAAF risked alienating other bidders if they again choose to head to new markets.
The most recent championships was in Deagu, South Korea, and the next two are in Moscow and Beijing.
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