"It was very, very important for us not to get spooked by the issue of inducements," he said.

"It was just to make sure that people understood that in London it was nine days, the World Athletics Championships, no plan-B.

"You have that Stadium stuffed to the gunwales with people that look like they want to be there, and know why they want to be there.

"And that was really for me the most important message to get across."

Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, added that the guarantee unveiled at the start of the London presentation to cover the athletes's prize fund of $7.2 million (£4.5 million/€5.2 million) had not been "a knee jerk reaction" to the fact that Doha had given the same commitment earlier in the week.

"People with more experience of bidding than I have tell me 'always keep a late reveal'," he told the post-event press conference.

"It was planned to be our late reveal for some time.

"We wanted to do it at the last minute.

"Earlier in the week the press were seeking reaction from us over Doha's offer, and we said it was very clear, straightforward and above board because we knew what we planned to do. I think it was an important part of the process."

Lamine Diack (pictured), President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said it had been a contest between two excellent candidates which had taken place amidst "a fantastically high level of interest in the media", adding that the choice of London would be "really good for the sport."

Diack was thanked by several members of the London bid for speaking out on the importance of the Olympic Stadium retaining an athletics stadium after the 2012 Games, and made his annoyance on the matter with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Jacques Rogge, very plain.

"When Jacques Rogge said the Stadium was a white elephant I considered that was an insult to our sport, and to the legacy of track and field," he said.

"So I realised we needed to work together."

Nils de Vos, the UK Athletics chief executive, told insidethegames that he felt the support the London bid had from athletes was "the killer bullet", adding: "When Denise Lewis [chair of the London 2017 Athletes' Commission] was talking about all the athletes who wanted the Championships to come to London, and their names were going up on the screen behind her, you could hear the IAAF members going 'Ooh, ooh..'

Coe, a vice-president of the IAAF, also made the point that, for all the promises of financial support offered to the sport by the Doha bidders, London had already made "an unprecedented level of investment" to track and field athletics as part of its £9.2 billion ($14.8 billion/€10.7 billion) commitment to the 2012 Games, given that the Olympic Stadium was secured as a permanent venue for athletics for a century.

"I cannot think of any other country in the last decade that has matched that level of investment on behalf of track and field," he said.

"I am really glad my IAAF colleagues recognised that.

"The infrastructure is in place. Now we have to make sure the sport works harder to excite young people into it.

"It's not just a case of saying, 'We will build it, they will come'.

"We have to deliver that legacy."

Warner added that the existence of the stadium meant the London bid could concentrate on operating costs and could build on the excellent track record of selling out events such as the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 Games.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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