IAAF opened a new chapter in the midst of a controversial period, after Lord Coe from the United Kingdom was appointed as its’ new President on Tuesday.
The former Olympic 1500 gold medalist will replace Senegal’s Lamine Diack, who has been at helm for almost 16 years now.
The voting process took place in Beijing, with 214 federations from all over the world casting their votes. He went up against Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka, who clinched the Pole Vault gold in 1988 – eventually winning by 115 votes to Bubka’s 92.
“Delighted and humbled by the confidence shown in me by the IAAF family – thank you, now the hard work begins,” he tweeted shortly after the result.
He will now kickstart a four-year term, though his immediate focus will be the recent doping allegations that has rocked the organization, after leaked files revealed that some of the biggest athletic competitions featured athletes who potentially cheated their way to victory.
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