The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)
announced the decision after a head-to-head battle in which London won by 16
votes to 10 among the council members.
"We've worked really hard for this," UK Athletics
chief Ed Warner told Reuters. "I'm the optimist in our camp and I've been
optimistic all along." London's bid team, including 2012 Olympics chief
Sebastian Coe, Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, London Mayor Boris Johnson and
former Olympic champion Denise Lewis, hugged each other after the decision was
read out by IAAF president Lamine Diack.
"I'm more than thrilled," said Sydney Games
heptathlon champion Lewis. "For me this is all about athletics and the
legacy we needed for our sport, for the Olympic stadium and its life beyond
2012. This is the right result.
"It has been a team effort. To win something like this
you rely on everyone to do a great presentation, we worked hard... we knew
London had great strength and I think those are the things that outweighed
(Doha's bid) in the end." Both bids had very different messages, with
London urging the governing body to bring the showpiece back to its
"traditional heartland and fan base" while Doha proclaimed the Middle
East was a ripe new market that would help the IAAF grow track and field and
safeguard the global appeal of the sport.
Oil-rich Qatar, which will host the 2022 soccer World Cup
finals, offered the IAAF huge cash incentives totalling over $236 million as
part of their bid.
It proposed underwriting an $80 million budget for the
event, spending $120 million on construction, $29 million on guaranteeing
sponsorship for all events leading up to 2017 and covering the $7.2 million
prize fund for the championships.
London also offered to underwrite the prize money, while
claiming it could raise $1 billion in sponsorship revenues.
Doha's bid committee vice-chairman and IAAF vice-president
Dahlan Al-Hamad congratulated the victorious London team.
"The main thing is that it was a fair battle, we wish
them good luck and we believe that in sport there is winning and losing, but at
the end of the day all of us are working for the good of the sport," he
told Reuters in the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel where the IAAF Council held
their vote.
"I think we did all we could." London and Doha
were the only candidates. The 2013 championships will be staged in Moscow with
Beijing hosting the showpiece event two years later.
