Current IAAF chief Lamine Diack will retire at the end of this year following 16 years at the helm, and he will be replaced by either Coe or Bubka, who are both standing. 

Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) President Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, who is also the head of the Cameroon National Olympic Committee, stressed the importance of considering the needs of his continent to the success of the new President as Africa relinquishes athletics' top job for the first time since 1999.

"We will make a choice to select the person who we think is the best for promoting athletics first of all worldwide but specifically how it would work with our strategic plan to develop athletics in the continent," he told insidethegames at the Africa International Sports Convention (CISA) here.

"For Africa it's the way that how the next President considers the need of our continent in terms of the development of our athletes because we have great potential."

The athletics world must build on the legacy left by Lamine Diack according to CAA President Hamad Kalkaba Malboum ©Getty Images



Athletics will enter a new era when Diack, the 81-year-old Senegalese departs, and the race is already proving to be intriguing with two former Olympic champions locked in a battle for the sport's top job.

One of Diack's greatest accomplishments during his tenure was to ensure the financial stability of the organisation, Kalkaba claimed.

Kalkaba, recently unanimously re-elected as CAA President, has called on the athletics family to build on his "legacy".

"Africa led for 16 years and we want to give the right for another continent to lead," he said.

"I think personally he did a good job and we must keep the legacy of Lamine Diack and if we do that we will protect the sport in future.

"He has helped us through some tough times and now the IAAF is financially stable and athletics has developed a great deal."

To read the full interview with Hamad Kalkaba Malboum click here. 

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