19 Dec 2021

Hosting of area championship affords communities an opportunity to see athletes in action hence are important, World Athletics president has said.

Speaking during a virtual press conference, Sebastian Coe said he was aware that Africa had postponed their championship due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Coe said his mission when he ascended the World Athletics post was to see Africa hosting major events and noted that he was happy that other continents and countries managed to host competitions despite challenges posed by the pandemic.

He said Tokyo Olympics and Under 20 Junior Championships which were held in Nairobi, Kenya were a success despite the pandemic threat.

Coe said he was happy that other African countries had shown interest in bidding to host World Championship.

“I was in the fore front in making sure Rabat host one of the Diamond League meetings to represent Africa,” he said.

Coe said World Athletics put the mental health of athletes high on its  agenda.

He said most of the athletes dealt well with their mental issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, as seen during the Olympics and junior championships.

He however, said he was aware that countries as Ghana had suspended school sport due to the COVID-19.

He noted that different countries had different protocols to protect their community, adding that World Athletics was not in any position to challenge any government or local authority on how to control the pandemic.

“What we can do is to encourage governments to make sure that young people engage in physical activities as that will help them with their mental wellbeing,” he said.

Talking about vaccination of athletes, he said he was not comfortable to tell athletes to take the vaccine, given that they might have different reasons to not vaccinate.

“But my instinct tell me that other countries will be demanding vaccine certificates, so those who have the ability to vaccinate, I will say that is a sensible thing to do.

We also want athletes to be safe and when we host an event in a certain country we don’t want it to be a super spreader event,” he said. ENDS