The former Olympic champion Sebastian Coe was elected as the sixth President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
The British Olympian was elected as the President at the 50th IAAF Congress in Beijing, China.
Coe will take office on 31 August 2015 after the end of the 2015 IAAF World Championships of Beijing. He succeeds Senegalese Lamine Diack, 82, who has led the IAAF for 16 years.
The 58-year-old Briton defeated his rival Sergey Bubka, a former Olympic pole vault champion, by 115 votes to 92.
Sebastian Coe
- He is a British politician and former track and field athlete.
- As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984.
- He set eight outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, setting three world records in the space of 41 days – and the world record he set in the 800 metres in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997.
- Post retirement, he became the Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party from 1992 to 1997, and became a Life Peer on 16 May 2000.
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
- The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is the international governing body for the sport of athletics.
- It was founded on 17 July 1912 at its first congress in Stockholm, Sweden by representatives from 17 national athletics federations as the International Amateur Athletics Federation.
- Since October 1993, it has been headquartered in Monaco.
