Courtesy IAAF,
WK

Helsinki will stage the 2005 IAAF World Championships
14 April 2002 -Nairobi, Kenya - In a closely fought competition to stage
the 10th edition of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, the IAAF
Council has selected the Finnish capital Helsinki as Host City.
It took six rounds of voting including elimination rounds before the
Council were able to reach an absolute majority in favour of Helsinki.
Helsinki staged the inaugural edition of the IAAF World Championships in
1983. According to the established procedure, the city with the lowest
number of votes would be eliminated in each round of voting until an
overall majority was achieved.
In the first round, three cities were in the same position at the bottom
of the table: Brussels, Moscow and Rome, another draw was therefore
necessary to eliminate one city. Moscow was eliminated. In the second
round it was the turn of Rome and Brussels. In a further eliminatory
vote, Brussels fell out. In the third round, Rome was eliminated. The
fourth round was decisive. With Berlin, Budapest and Helsinki remaining,
Helsinki received an absolute majority to win the contest.
Following the announcement of the winner, IAAF President Lamine Diack
said: "First of all, I would like to congratulate all of the contenders.
We have shown with this bidding process that concluded here in Nairobi
that there is tremendous interest world wide in our sport. "It was not
easy for the Council to select one candidate and it took more than 40
minutes. However, now I am confident that we have chosen the city that
offered the best conditions for these World Championships.
"We believe that Helsinki will guarantee a full stadium throughout the
competition, as our sport is the number one sport in Finland. The
television production we can expect to be of the highest quality since
Finnish television has provided coverage of the athletics at every
Olympic Games since 1988.
"With regard to the athletes, I am convinced that we are offering them
the best possible conditions, both for training and competition. There
is a beautiful athletes village, there are no transport problems and all
facilities are within walking distance."
The leader of the Finnish delegation, State Councillor Harri Holkeri
said, "I am delighted that Helsinki, which was the first City to host an
IAAF World Championships in Athletics, has been entrusted to do the job
again. "This bidding competition has been a very tough one and we have a
high respect for all of the competitors. We were ready to congratulate
any of the other cities.
"You have our word that the 2005 World Championships will be a great
success. The whole of Finnish society will be supporting this from
tomorrow!"


IAAF Council opens in Nairobi decides changes in Competition Structure
13 April 2002 - Nairobi, Kenya – In the first session of the IAAF
Council meeting in Nairobi, the executive body of the International
Association of Athletics Federations worked its way through a charged
agenda and made a number of decisions.
Following the welcome of the meeting’s host, Isaiah Kiplagat, President
of the Kenyan Amateur Athletic Association, President Lamine Diack
declared the proceedings open and the discussions commenced.
Most important among the Council’s decisions this morning were the
adoption of a new Competition Structure from 2003, streamlining the
current multiple tier organisation to produce a global fully-integrated
competition system. The high prestige IAAF Golden League will top the
new structure, which will also incorporate the major athletics
championships around the world, followed by the IAAF Grand Prix, Grand
Prix II and a new Grand Prix III category that will replace the previous
Permit Meetings.
Council further approved the principle of utilisation of the IAAF World
Rankings as the criteria for establishing the eligibility of athletes to
compete at the various levels of competition.
The Overall Grand Prix competition will be replaced with financial
awards to the athletes heading the men and women Overall Rankings and
selected as Athletes of the Year at the annual World Athletics Gala.
Another major decision by Council was the acceleration of the process of
introduction to the IAAF World Athletics Series of the women’s
steeplechase.
Council decided that this event, which was originally scheduled for
introduction as an event at the IAAF WorldChampionships in Athletics in
2007, would in fact be introduced for the first time over a shorter
distance of 2000 metres at the 2004 edition of the World Junior
Championships. At its next meeting in Paris in July, Council will decide
whether this event should be staged as an exhibition event at the 2003
World Championships in Paris. The senior women’s full 3000m event will
be staged at the 2005 World Championships.
<<Later this afternoon three Kenyan athletics legends will draw the
order of presentation of the bidding cities for
the 2005 World Championships and this event will be covered live on the
IAAF web site.>>


THREE KENYAN LEGENDS TO MAKE 2005 DRAW IN NAIROBI
10 April 2002 Monte Carlo – Three legends of Kenyan athletics will make
the draw to decide the order in which the 6 bidding
cities will make their final presentations to the IAAF Council in
Nairobi on 14 April.
Moses Kiptanui, Tegla Loroupe and Moses Tanui will make the draw at
18:00 on 13 April at the Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi.
Moses Kiptanui became the youngest ever World Champion when he won the
Steeplechase gold at Tokyo 1991 aged 19. He went on to set three world
records in 1992 – indoor 3000m, 3000m and 3000m Steeplechase. In 1995
became the first man since Henry Rono to hold 5000m and Steeplechase
world records at the same time. He also became the first man to run a
sub 8 minutes Steeplechase with 7:59.18. He is now a coach and an
associate of the KIM Management group.
Tegla Loroupe started out as a 5000m/10,000m runner but after a stunning
marathon debut in 1994, when she won the New York marathon in 2:27:37,
became a legend of the road running scene. Ran 2:20:47 for the marathon
in 1998 and 2:20:43 in 1999 – both world bests at the time. Tegla was
also the IAAF World Half Marathon champion in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and
bronze medallist for 10,000m at the 1999 World Championships in Seville.

Moses Tanui was the 10,000m World Champion in 1991 and finished second
to Haile Gebrselassie in 1993. He won the 1995 World Half Marathon title
and won the Boston Marathon in 1996 and 1998. He set his pb of 2:06:16
when finishing 2nd in the 1999 Chicago Marathon
For all the latest news about the 2005 World Championships Bids go to
the special site: www.iaaf.org/sp2005/