LONDON: London was rewarded for its successful organisation of the Paralympic Games yesterday when it was named as the host city of the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships.
The event, organised under the banner of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), will take place at London’s Olympic Stadium, just a month before the World Athletics Championships gets under way at the same venue.
The move means London will become the first city to host the two championships concurrently.
“This year London just staged the best spectacle of sport the world has seen,” said London mayor Boris Johnson, who is also chairman of the London Legacy Development Corporation.
“By bringing the IPC Athletics World Championships to our wonderful Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park just a month before the World Athletics Championships, the capital is poised to recreate the magic of 2012.
“London’s Paralympic Games were the first ever to sell out, and these Championships provide a perfect chance to build on that enthusiasm for disabled sport, bringing back the world’s greatest Paralympians to the Olympic Stadium, and at the same time providing a major economic boost to the capital.”
IPC president Philip Craven described London 2012 as the “best Games” in history.
The athletics competition featured 1,134 competitors, who set 102 world and 139 Paralympic records.
Sell-out crowds of over 80,000 watched the athletics during the Paralympics, while worldwide television audiences totalled over a billion.
“The UK’s capital city has already demonstrated its ability to provide an excellent experience for athletes and spectators alike,” said Ed Warner, IPC athletics sport technical committee chairman and head of UK Athletics.
“London 2017 will bring record crowds for an IPC World Championships, creating an ideal backdrop for athletes to break records, further raising the profile of sport for people with an impairment in the process.”
Paralympic sports were among the major beneficiaries of a new £347m ($565.6m, 425.9m euro) funding package announced by national governing body UK Sport on Tuesday. REUTERS
