IAAF Vice President Coe notes good preparations for world championships

DAEGU, Aug. 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Daegu is "in very good shape" to host the World Championships in Athletics starting this weekend, a senior official with the international athletics governing body said Tuesday. Sebastian Coe, vice president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said Daegu, located 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, has run "a very, very good" organizing team for the top IAAF event. "I know the whole of the city is very, very excited about the opportunity to see a global event," said Coe, also the chairman of the organizing committee for the 2012 London Olympics. He was speaking to reporters after watching local amateur athletes train at Daegu Stadium. "I was complimenting Mr. Moon (Dong-hoo, vice president of the organizing committee) on the way the city looks before a major championship," Coe said. "When I arrived in Daegu, I knew I'd arrived in a city that was staging a world championship." The 13th championships will kick off this Saturday for a nine-day run. Daegu is a first-time host of the biennial event. South Korea isn't exactly a hotbed of athletics. It is trying to avoid becoming only the third host to be shut out of medals at a world championships, and its modest goal is to place athletes in the top-10 in 10 events. Coe said the world event here will be "very important" for the future of Korean athletics. "The world championships can inspire a new generation of young people to understand how important track and field is," Coe said. "It's very important that track and field is seen by young people as a very important sport to take up." Coe himself is a former champion runner. He won the Olympic gold medals in the 1,500 meters in 1980 and 1984, and silver medals in the 800m in those two Olympic Games. Coe said big names such as Usain Bolt, the world record holder in the men's 100m and 200m, and his rival Asafa Powell will shine in Daegu, but he also expects to see some upsets. "There will always be one or two athletes that none of us are thinking about at this moment but will come through and perform very well," Coe said. "The other thing to remember is that it is tougher to win a medal in track and field than almost any other sport, because so many people do track and field, so many people run in the world, and there are so many countries doing it." He said the middle-distance events -- 800m and 1,500m -- will be wide open this year. "The nice thing about this championship is that there are no obvious favorites, either in the 800m or 1,500m," Coe said. "An athlete like David Rudisha, a new world record holder in the 800m, is a fantastic talent, but he's not that experienced in major championships. So I think these will be quite open championships." London has said it will try to host the 2017 IAAF World Championships, and Coe will formally submit the bid here this month.