London were awarded the right to stage the able-bodied 2017 Athletics World Championships last year by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) with UK Athletics stating their intention to also host the IPC event alongside it.

London appears to be the obvious contender to host the event as UK Athletics has strong links with the IPC.

Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, is head of the IPC's Athletics Sport Technical Committee and the appointment of Sophia Warner as the new commercial director is likely to strengthen the relationship further, although the bidding process for the event has not yet been opened by the IPC.

"I really do hope we get the 2017 IPC World Athletics Championships and given that it is something that we discussed in the bid, I would be surprised if we didn't get it," she told insideworldparasport.


"On a personal level, I obviously really hope we do get it because that would be an amazing project for me in my new role.

"I would be all over it and I would work as hard as I could to make it a bigger event than the able-bodied competition."

Warner also admitted that she is hopeful of winning a medal at London 2012 before becoming the UK Athletics commercial director, although she says it will be tough.

"Paralympic sport is such a minefield so the main thing is just for me to go out there and run faster than I've ever run in my entire life," she said.

"I just hope that it is enough to get me a medal.

"I've been running very well this season and I broke the European record for the T35 200 metres  at the Paralympic athletics test event at the Olympic Stadium last month with a time of 35.59 seconds.

"The month before that, I set a European record for the T35 100m of 16.44sec so it has been a cracking season so far.

"I'm definitely where I want to be at the moment and the plan is just to try and continue that heading into London 2012 and obviously stay fit."

To read the full interview with Sophia Warner click here. 

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