The American will lead a nine-member delegation that will visit London and Doha next month to produce a report that will assess the two cities respective bids ahead of a meeting of the IAAF's ruling Council in Monte Carlo on November 11 who will choose which candidate will host the event.

Hersh, a Harvard Law School graduate, replaces former Olympic pole vault champion Sergey Bubka, who headed the Evaluation Commission that oversaw the bids for the 2015 World Championships.

London were also among the bidders for those Championships but withdrew on the eve of the final vote because of concerns over guaranteeing the future of the Olympic Stadium after 2012 and the event was was awarded to Beijing.

The Stadium's future is still shrouded in doubt after Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient were granted a judicial review on October 18 after they disputed the decision by the Olympic Park Legacy Company to award it to West Ham United after the Games.

The Evaluation Commission will be seeking reassurances during their visit, which is scheduled to take place between October 2 and 4, that London will have a Stadium to host the event if they are awarded it.

Memories are still fresh within the IAAF that in 2001 were awarded the 2005 World Championships but then Prime Minister Tony Blair broke a promise to build a stadium at Picketts Lock to host the event and it was eventually moved to Helsinki.

But London will be encouraged that Bubka, a vocal long-time critic of London's failure to secure the future of the Olympic Stadium, has been removed from the Evaluation Commission after he lost his position as senior IAAF vice-president at the elections in Daegu last month.


London will also draw encouragement from the inclusion on the Commission of Namibia's former world 200 metres champion Frankie Fredericks (pictured above with Sebastian Coe).

He was a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission that inspected London's bid for 2012 and is now on the Coordination Commission that is overseeing the preparations.

Other members of the Commission include Mexico's Cesar Moreno Bravo, an honorary member of the IAAF Council, IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss, who is from France, and his British deputy, Nick Davies.

The Commission also includes another Briton in Nigel Swinscoe, a Lougborough University graduate, who will be representing AMS, the servicing company of Dentsu, the IAAF's marketing agents.

Dentsu will also have a representative on the Commission who will sit alongside Paul Hardy, the Canadian who is the competition manager of the IAAF, and Isabelle Dupuis, Weiss' personal assistant.

The Commission are due to visit the Olympic Stadium on October 3, the second day of their visit to London, and will hold a press conference the next day before leaving for Doha, where they will stay until October 6.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
September 2011: Exclusive - London 2017 appoint Pitch PR and Navy Blue to key campaign roles
September 2011: London 2017 unveil World Championship logo and slogan
September 2011: Exclusive - Doha 2017 promise to "overcome technical and mental barriers" to stage World Championships
September 2011: Exclusive - IAAF decision on 2017 World Championships dates crucial for Doha Olympic bid
September 2011: Exclusive - Two bidders for 2017 World Athletics Championships after Barcelona withdrawal