Britain's bid to host the 2003 Championships were shelved after plans to build an athletics track in the new national stadium at Wembley were abandoned, but London was then awarded the 2005 Championships after then-Prime Minister Tony Blair promised the Government would build a brand new stadium at Picketts Lock to stage them.

Blair then went back on that promise as the Government tried to move the event to Sheffield, but the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rejected the offer and instead awarded the event to Helsinki at the last minute.

The fall-out from the row was such that it nearly wrecked London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics before Sebastian Coe, the current IAAF vice-president, almost single-handedly dragged it from the ashes.

The latest failure for the 2015 World Championships happened at the end of year after the Government claimed it was unable to commit to backing the bid because of uncertainty over the future of the Olympic Stadium with Tottenham declaring they would remove the athletics track if awarded the venue.

But with West Ham and Newham Council set to take over the Olympic Stadium and retain an athletics legacy, Robertson is confident London can deliver the best possible bid for the competition and does not feel the trio of disasters will count against the city.


"I don't think the IAAF will approach this in terms of the baggage from previous bids," Robertson told insidethegames.

"I think they will look at what we have got on the table now.

"We are in a much, much better position now than we have ever been in the past.

"We have got a fantastic stadium which is going to be tested in the most vigorous possible way through London 2012.

"So this should be our strongest bid yet, but we shouldn't for a moment think that it is going to be easy because it won't be.

"We are going to have to work hard every single yard of the way and put together a bid that is going to be better than a lot of other very competitive bids."

London will face opposition from three cities to host the 2017 competition as it was revealed yesterday that Doha, Budapest and an unnamed city from Spain have put themselves forward to host the event.

The IAAF will now study the four bids and announce a short-list on September 1, before choosing a candidate at a meeting of its ruling Council in Monte Carlo in November this year.

"We are in the very early stages in the bid at the moment, having just announced an expression of interest," Robertson continued.

"Clearly we've got to see the stadium business through to the end.

"We've then got to assemble the right financial package and take that package to the IAAF and win the bid.

"We've made a good start and the IAAF are undoubtedly pleased with the legacy result of the stadium.

"I'm delighted we have put in an expression of interest because I want to bring as many world class events to this country as possible in the post 2012 period and we'll do everything we can to bring that home."

"Everybody has their favourite event in the Olympics but I think most people would accept that track and field is the blue-riband event at the Games," he said.

"The World Athletics Championships is after the Olympics as the most important event in track and field and it has never ever been to London.

"That is something we want to correct and that will be a fantastic legacy for athletics coming after London 2012."

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