Sebastian Coe, World Athletics president has lauded the local organizing committee, LOC ‘world class’ organization of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 that is currently going on in Hungary with over 2000 athletes participating.
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The world event which started on August 19 and will span for a week at the Hungarian capital has been boosted by a lot of outstanding branding and promotion which will result in athletes being inspired to be at their absolute best.
“It’s a week ago that I arrived in Budapest,” he said, speaking at the official pre-event press conference. “On the first morning, I met the Mayor, and on the second morning, I met the President. From those opening moments, it has been pretty clear to me that we’re in a World Championships city and a city that wants us here.
“This is a really important element – and people often overlook this – but it’s a psychological comfort to the athletes that they’re in a city that’s proud to be hosting the event. And it’s a totemic of the other elements of work that are taking place.
“I think we’re going to have a championship that’s going to sit comfortably in this city. And I know that we’re working with one of the best local organizing committees we’ve ever worked with. The work that has been done has been of outstanding quality.
“I’m particularly pleased that these are the first World Championships to be held under our sustainability strategy. That matters to me, and I know it matters to 75-80% of the athletes because in recent surveys they have made it clear that climate change and sustainability issues really matter to them.
And I’m particularly delighted that the legacy for these championships has a real focus on physical activity.
“I’m also pleased that, working together with the LOC, we’ve managed to put together a timetable of events – particularly over the first couple of days – that gets into the championships in a very quick and exciting way. On the first day, we have four finals: the men’s shot put, the men’s 20km race walk, the women’s 10,000m, and the mixed 4x400m.
“I think that the athletes are in the form of their life. And most pleasingly we have some big head-to-heads.
“This is the 40th anniversary of our World Championships. Back then, few would have imagined that these championships would have gone from roughly 1500 athletes from 130 countries to tipping 2000 athletes and about 200 countries,” he said.
