By Jack Tarrant
TOKYO (Reuters) – World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said on Thursday that he wants Tokyo to host an athletics World Championships in the National Stadium rebuilt for the 2020 Olympic Games “as soon as we possibly can”.
Coe was speaking during a visit to Tokyo to meet organisers of the 2020 summer Olympics – rearranged for next year due to the coronavirus pandemic – and toured the stadium earlier in the day.
“I saw a stadium that will be a fitting venue for a future World Championships in track and field,” Coe said. “It is our ambition, with the support of the municipalities and the local federations for us to come back to this great city as soon as we possibly can.”
The next two hosts for the event, usually held every two years, have been decided: Eugene, Oregon in 2022, delayed by a year to avoid any clash with the rearranged Olympics, and Budapest in 2023. Currently no city has secured rights for 2025.
Tokyo last held the championships in 1991, whilst Japan also hosted the 2007 event in Osaka.
“I really do hope that during my tenure as president of this truly great sport, that we are able to come back to Tokyo for another great World Championships, as we did in 1991,” Coe said, speaking as he attended a meeting with Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori.
Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, said he would discuss the matter with Coe.
(Reporting by Jack Tarrant; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
