The man who successfully delivered the London 2012 Olympic Games has launched his bid for the presidency of world athletics' governing body, one of the most powerful jobs in global sport.
Double Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe has confirmed he'll run for the top job at the International Association of Athletics Federations, when Senegalese Lamine Diack steps down in 2015.
The IAAF president Lord Sebastian Coe. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Coe has been an IAAF vice-president since 2007, and will unveil an election manifesto and a vision for the sport and its governing body in the coming weeks.
The 58-year-old says he wants them to have a renewed focus on engagement with young people and a real understanding of the global landscape that is shaping the next generation of athletes and fans.
Having headed the successful London bid to host the 2012 Summer Games, and chairing the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games that oversaw the global sporting gathering, it comes as no surprise that Coe has switched his ambitions to his first love.
The former Member of Parliament says for as long as he can remember, he's woken knowing that athletics, in some way, would shape his day.
"As a young boy, running was the thing that I loved beyond anything else and I have been hugely fortunate that athletics has been at the centre of my life ever since."
Coe is likely to face opposition for the presidency from Ukrainian former pole vault champion Sergey Bubka.
A fellow IAAF vice-president, Bubka's reputation took something of a hit last year, however, when he finished bottom of the final round of voting to select a new International Olympic Committee president.
Bubka received four of the 93 second-round votes cast in Buenos Aires. Thomas Bach was elected president with 49.
Coe, alongside Steve Ovett, ignited the British public's interest in athletics in the 1980s, a decade considered the golden years for Britain on the track.
