By Tom Degun

Sebastian_Coe_outside_Olympic_Stadium_September_15_2011October 2 - Sebastian Coe has revealed that he is ready to show off the controversial Olympic Stadium to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as they prepare to being their inspection of the venue scheduled to host the 2017 World Championships if the bid is successful next month.


The IAAF Evaluation Commission, led by American Bob Hersh, has already arrived in the capital for the crucial inspection, which is due to officially begin tomorrow, with London bidding against Doha for the right to stage the 2017 competition.

The nine-member delegation will look around London before heading straight to Doha for their inspection of the Qatari capital and then 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.

Coe – who is also the IAAF vice president – is leading the London 2017 bid and believes that the Stadium, which now has its track in place, will make a huge impression on the IAAF.

"When you are bidding for a major international sporting competition, it is absolutely fantastic to have a state-of-the-art venue available and we are delighted to now have the track in place so that we can show off the Stadium to the Commission in all its glory," Coe told insidethegames.

"Not only is it an outstanding athletics stadium, but it has extraordinary transport links to and from the centre of London.

"We will be taking the Commission from the centre of London to the Stadium on the Javelin [high-speed train from St Pancras] to highlight exactly just how high-quality those transport links are."

Coe also believes that the strong support for athletics in Britain will be a key advantage for the London 2017 bid.

"Track and field athletics is undoubtedly one of our strongest national sports," Coe said.

"I mean, if you look over the last 50 years at all of our national sports, you would be hard pressed to say any other sport has been more successful.

"Also, if you look at the heritage of track and field in this country, and the speed at which our track and field tickets were snapped up during the Olympic offering, it shows that my colleagues at the IAAF can quite safely conclude that there will be the same demand for a World Athletics Championships here in London."

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