Lamine Diack seeks final term as IAAF boss

By Andreas Schirmer Aug 23, 2011, 8:48 GMT

Daegu, South Korea - Lamine Diack was expected to be elected president of the ruling athletics body IAAF for a final four-year term Wednesday despite an Olympics Ethics Commission investigation against him.

Diack, 78, did not want to comment in an email interview on the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) corruption inquiry in connection with the former rights holders company ISL.

'It is true that I received a letter from the IOC Ethics Commission with a number of questions, and I replied to them in April 2011,' he said. 'At this point, since the matter is pending, I prefer not to comment further.'

Diack wants to land a final term at the IAAF Congress that is to take place in Daegu ahead of Saturday's start of the world championships.

'I am excited and motivated to embark on one final mandate,' Diack said.

There has been speculation that Diack, who has held the IAAF's top job since 1999, would not see out the full four-year term and leave after the IAAF centenary in 2012.

After all, he is said to have presidential ambitions in his home country of Senegal.

'At the moment, I am trying to do my best to help create a better political situation in my native country, using all my experience and wisdom to preserve Senegal's democratic foundations and to create a better future,' he wrote.

Two former star athletes are seen as likely successors, Ukrainian pole vault legend Sergey Bubka and British middle-distance runner Sebastian Coe, who is currently organizing the London 2012 Olympics.

Coe and Bubka are vying for IAAF vice presidency jobs on Wednesday, which also sees the election of nine members of the powerful decision-making IAAF Council.

A new secretary general was already chosen in Daegu in the form of Essar Gabriel, who takes over from fellow Frenchman Pierre Weiss.

Looking beyond the congress at the first world championships in mainland Asia (after two editions in Tokyo in 1991 and Osaka in 2007), Diack said he has full confidence in the organizers to produce 'a marvellous event.'

Diack also readily admitted Jamaican sprint sensation Usain Bolt towers above everyone else even if he might not be able to better his 100m and 200m world records from the 2009 edition in Berlin.

'There, of course, is no avoiding the fact that Usain Bolt is arguably the most famous sports star of any sport in the world at the current time,' he wrote.

Diack said athletics benefits from Bolt but also said that every generation in the sport had its major stars, which was one of the reasons why athletics has a large profile and remains the top sport at the Olympic Games.

'Athletics wears the mantle of the Olympics' number one sport with great pride,' Diack said.