TheCable

Former Olympic 1500m champion, Sebastian Coe, is the new president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Coe was elected as the sixth president of the organisation at the 50th IAAF Congress in Beijing, China, on Wednesday.

The 58-year-old Briton beat rival Sergey Bubka, a former Olympic pole vault champion, by 115 votes to 92.

The former chairman of London 2012 replaces 82-year-old Senegalese Lamine Diack, who has been in charge for 16 years.

“I am deeply honoured that our sport has placed its trust in me. There is no job I want to do more – nor with greater commitment,” Coe said.

Among the first to congratulate Coe were the current IAAF president Lamine Diack and Sergey Bubka, who was later elected as an IAAF vice president.

“We have a man who has devoted his life to the sport,” Diack said.

“I know that athletics in the future will grow, and become stronger and stronger,” Bubka added.

Coe will take office on August 31, after the end of the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015.

“I’m very flattered, very, very honoured to have been elected President. I haven’t had much of a chance to let it sink in,” Coe said at a press conference.

“It has been a long road. I joined an athletics club when I was 11, I had the joys of Olympic competition and I the joys of being able to put on one of the greatest sporting events ever, but this for me is the pinnacle, it’s my sport, it’s my passion, it’s the thing I always wanted to do.

“Lamine has left us with an extraordinarily strong foundation and one aspect of that foundation is that we are a truly global sport. I will do my best to continue from those firm foundations.”

One of Coe’s first tasks will be to deal with the fall-out from a series of doping allegations to hit athletics.