The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced at its Council meeting in Doha today that bids for the sport's flagship event had been received from London, Beijing and Chorzow, a Polish city of two million in the Silesian region.

A decision is due to be announced in November.

The award of the 2015 World Championships to the capital would have ramifications on the future of the Olympic Stadium, which has been the subject of interest from Premier League football club West Ham United.

Under the original plans, the 80,000-capacity stadium will be reduced to a 25,000 athletics stadium after the Games.

If that proposal goes ahead - and London's bid is successful - then an extra 12,000 seats would be added for the World Championships.

It will be the third time London has bid to host the World Championships in less than 15 years.

in 1997 it put forward Wembley to host the 2003 edition but had to withdraw when plans for the stadium to include an athletics track were controversially dropped.

They were then subsequently awarded the 2005 World Championships when Prime Minister Tony Blair promised to build a stadium specially for the event at Pickett's Lock.

But the event was taken away from London and awarded to Helsinki after the Government reneged on its promise, a decision that threatened to undermine London's bid for the 2012 Olympics.

The turning point for the bid came when Sebastian Coe, the chairman of London 2012, persuaded IAAF President Lamine Diack that by voting for Britain to host the Olympics it would guarantee athletics a long-term legacy.

But London will face tough opposition from Beijing, whose iconic Bird's Nest Stadium was the scene for Usain Bolt's memorable triple gold medal triumph during the 2008 Olympics.

The $423 million (£281 million) 80,000-seat stadium - officially called the Beijing National Stadium - is the largest steel structure in the world and was designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron.

The stadium has hardly been used since the Olympics - hosting only two events, the 2009 Supercoppa Italiana, the traditional curtain raiser to the Italian football league season, and the opera Turandot - but still attracts up to 30,000 visitors a day who want to see it.

The 2011 World Championships are due to be held in Daegu, South Korea, and the 2013 event in Moscow.

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