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 The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has
been battered by allegations over the last three weeks of widespread
doping in track and field.
While the 58-year-old Briton said an independent body was the only
way to ensure an end to any question about the IAAF's vigilance, he
also said he was inheriting a "very strong sport" from Senegalese
Lamine Diack.
A twice Olympic 1,500 meters champion, and head of the organizers
for the 2012 London Olympics, Coe won the presidency by beating
Ukraine's Sergey Bubka 115-92 in a ballot of the IAAF's 50th
Congress.
He starts his new job on Aug. 31, the day after the world
championships end in Beijing.
"I've had the joys of Olympic competition, I've had the joys of
being part of something special in London a few years ago, but this
for me is the pinnacle," he said.
"It is my sport, it's my passion, it's the thing that I've always
wanted to do.
"I will do everything within my human capabilities to make sure our
sport maintains the values, maintains the strong legacies and the
very, very firm foundations that President Diack has left me," he
added.
"This is a sport that is strong, I have the responsibility to make
it stronger, and I will."
The election took place against the background of a public relations
crisis for the IAAF, which was accused of failing in its duty to
address the scourge of doping.
A former Conservative politician in Britain, Coe has aggressively
defended the IAAF's record on doping since the leak of blood test
data to the media.
But on Wednesday, he made no mention of the subject in his speeches
to delegates before and after the vote, only addressing the issue at
the ensuing news conference.
"There is zero tolerance to the abuse of doping in my sport and I
want to continue that," he said.
"I will maintain that to the very highest level of vigilance."
The plan to establish an independent anti-doping agency was one of
the central pledges in a campaign that has taken Coe 700,000
kilometers around the world.
"There is a universal problem with (doping) in sport. We recognize
that and we've been in the lead role as long as I've been in the
sport," he said.
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"That's something I'm very proud of... (but) we do have to recognize
that there is too broad a view that this is something where, whether
it is real or perceived, there are conflicts and there are
loopholes.
"I think an independent system is what we need to close down any
thought that we are doing anything other than being entirely
vigilant about that."
The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the body which
currently oversees doping control around the world, congratulated
Coe on his victory.
"We look forward to a positive and strong relationship with the new
president in his avowed plans to protect the rights of the clean
athlete," WADA president and fellow Briton Craig Reedie said in a
statement.
Former Olympic pole vault champion Bubka also congratulated Coe on
his victory and was later elected one of four IAAF vice presidents,
along with Cuban Alberto Juantorena, Qatari Dahlan Al Hamad and
Hamad Kalkaba Malboum of Cameroon.
"I know athletics will grow and become stronger," Bubka said. "I am
a happy man because I love athletics. I will continue to serve
athletics with passion. This is my life."
Outgoing president Diack, who has run the body for the last 16
years, said he was delighted to finally have a successor.
"The white-haired generation has done what it could, and now over to
the black-haired generation," he said.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford and Julian
Linden)
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