IAAF Admits "Challenge" to Fill Olympic Stadium

(ATR) The president of the IAAF says that it's a "challenge" to ensure there are no empty seats in London's Olympic Stadium.

Lamine Diack was speaking to reporters late Tuesday after the close of the IAAF Council meeting at the British Library. He admitted his concerns about empty seats with the athletics competition starting on Friday.

"It is a problem for all of us," he said. "I am an IOC member, and I was expecting that all arenas would be full. I see that a lot of them have empty seats, so the issue is sometimes that the best places are given to sponsors and officials – I think it needs correction in the upcoming days."

"We face the same problem in the Olympic Stadium on the 3rd, and the challenge is how to make the stadium full. We will do our best - I hope that we will do like we did in China. In Beijing it was no problem, it was no problem in Athens.

"But I think our sport is very loved in this country, and I think we will make the stadium full and make you forget about the organizer facing this difficult problem. But I think the organizers are doing their best to face this situation."

General secretary Essar Gabriel went on to say that the IAAF had already been contacted by LOCOG about the possibility of having tickets to return, and they are working together to avoid the issue.

"We are looking to benefit from what they [LOCOG] have been doing at other venues with the other sports, so we will implement that at the stadium" he said.

"We’re looking now to see what can be done, and how they want us to operate. At this stage we cannot give any more details. LOCOG will give you those details once they will be implemented."

Gabriel also clarified some confusion that has arisen over the past week about the IAAF’s stance on its false start rule.

Reports last week suggested that the rule had been softened, but Gabriel and Diack both insisted that nothing had been changed.

"If the athlete did not leave the ground, then you are OK. If you move, you can get a yellow card, and we say ‘don’t do it again’. But we are going to stick to the no false start rule, we are not going to change it," Diack said.

Gabriel added: "The technical team is looking at an interpretation of the rule to fine-tune it - the rule has not changed."

The IAAF also confirmed that the dates for the world championships in London in 2017 had been approved as August 5-13.

Reported by Christian Radnedge

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