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India is an important market for IAAF to globalise the sport, says Coe

The IAAF Diamond League is a 14-leg series in which top athletes compete for prize money and points.

Sebastian Coe

Jakarta, August 27: International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe sees India as an important market for the sport's governing body to globalise athletics and has endorsed the country's candidature as a potential future host of the Diamond League series.

The IAAF Diamond League is a 14-leg series in which top athletes compete for prize money and points.

It was established in 2010 to replace the Golden League to take the sport beyond Europe and as IAAF's contract with the event sponsors draws to an end, discussions are being held to take it to new countries, with India being a prospective venue in future.

"The concentration of Diamond League or world events has historically been in European countries. We want to maintain that strength, but we have to make sure that big cities are hosting our sport, cities like Delhi, Tokyo, Beijing in Asia," Coe told media in Jakarta on the sidelines of the 18th Asian Games is currently under way.

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Apart from Europe, currently Asian countries such as China, Qatar and Morocco are already hosting IAAF Diamond League events and Coe does not rule out India as a future venue.

"We've one more year with the Diamond League contract. Those discussions are taking place at the moment but I want to see our world events being spread around the world. I want to see the sport in big populations, in big cities and this has to be the objective," the two-time Olympic champion said.

"Next year we've Asian Athletics Championship in Doha, then Olympic games in Tokyo and the World Indoor Championship in Nanjing in 2020. Asia is going to be the focus of the sport for next four or five years," he added.

The IAAF chief said India is an important market for his organisaton.

"It's very encouraging, India is a very important country for the potential to grow our sport. You've a federation which is very ambitious to grow the sport," he said.

"I see India as very important for helping us globalise our sport and there's a huge sponsorship and broadcast market which is something we should be doing a lot more work in. That's the objective of the IAAF," he added.

Coe, who won the 1,500M gold medals at the 1980 and the 1984 Olympic Games, was impressed with the rise of Indian athletes such as Hima Das and Neeraj Chopra.

"She was very impressive. I was in the stadium. In know the impact that had in India. This is a good sign, athletics is beginning to grab the consciousness of the population. I remember the CWG in 2010, you had stadiums full every night."

(With inputs from Agencies).

Story first published: Monday, August 27, 2018, 14:52 [IST]
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