QOC Confirm Doha will Contest London ’17 WAC Bid

After announcing a campaign to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium, London is to face serious competition from Doha after the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) confirmed today that they are planning to bid for the event. 

Qatar is targeting another major sporting event to help raise their profile, having already upset the odds and been awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Doha’s bid is set to prove financially attractive to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) as it promises to offer a series of development programmes.

The QOC released a statement, reading: “The main platform of the bid is to promote the sport around the world and help the IAAF develop athletics in new regions including the Gulf region, the Middle East and into Central Asia.

“Should Qatar be awarded the event, we will work in full cooperation with the IAAF and other member federations to share best practice in athletics and jointly create development programmes, which will increase and encourage more participation and even more attention for Athletics as a sport.”

Hosting the World Championships would build on last year’s successful World Indoor Championships and Doha is also part of the Diamond League series, which was launched last year by the IAAF.

One factor against Doha’s bid for the World Athletics Championships may be that the 2015 event has already been awarded to Beijing and Daegu in South Korea is due to host this year’s Championships and the IAAF may not want to host the event three out of four times in an Asian country.

The IAAF is due to make a decision on which city to award the Championships to at a meeting in Monte Carlo in November.