From Inside the Games
Sebastian Coe will be re-elected unopposed as President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), it was officially confirmed today.
insidethegames had revealed exclusively last month that the 62-year-old Briton would be the only candidate at the election due to be held in Doha on the eve of the IAAF World Championships in September.
If double Olympic gold medallist Coe is to be elected for a second term without anyone standing against him, all the other positions look set to be fiercely contested at the IAAF Congress in the Qatari capital on September 25, two days before the World Championships are due to open.
A group of 11 candidates will be chasing the four available spots as vice-president, one of whom must be female.
There are three women standing, including Colombia’s 1992 Olympic 400 metres bronze medallist Ximena Restrepo.
The 50-year-old was the first Colombian to win an Olympic medal in athletics during a career which also included silver medals in the 200m and 400m at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana and South American titles in the 400m and 400m hurdles at Valencia in 1994.
Other female candidates include Canada’s 72-year-old Abby Hoffman, the 1963 and 1971 Pan American Games 800m gold medallist and 1966 Commonwealth Games 880 yards champion.
Hoffman, who carried Canada’s flag at the Opening Ceremony of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, has been a member of the IAAF Council since 1995 and been coordinatior of the world governing body’s Anti-Doping Task Force since 2004.
The third female standing is the Netherlands’ 65-year-old Sylvia Barlag, who finished 10th in the pentathlon at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
Like Hoffman, Barlag is already a member of the IAAF Council.
