Tuesday Talk -- Lamine Diack, IAAF President

(ATR) Lamine Diack, who was elected to another term as IAAF President, faces a sporting landscape in which track and field must increasingly compete with football for attention. "Our sport was the first of the Olympic sports," he told the IAAF Congress. "It should continue to have a prime position in the Olympic universe." On the heels of the World Championships, in which more than 1,800 athletes from 200 countries participated, Diack answered questions from Around the Rings about the state of his sport.

Around the Rings:Do you think the false start rule should be changed, and if so, will it be changed before London?

Lamine Diack: I think we need to stop talking about changing the rule and accept that Usain Bolt made a mistake and false-started. Bolt is clear on that himself. There is nothing wrong with the rule and we certainly should not start questioning its validity just because Usain Bolt or any other athlete was disqualified.

Let us remember that at the time of the decision to change the rule which took place at the 47th IAAF Congress in Berlin -- while there were strong and passionate arguments on all sides of the debate -- when our national member federations were asked to decide, the vote in favor was clear - Yes 97; No 55.

Athletics is made up of many event disciplines, and it is important to emphasize that word "discipline," abiding by the rules, which is at the core of athletics' culture and one of its most important contributions to personal human development. The athletes know what the rules say, and without rules being applied consistently sport will lose its credibility. And once that happens, the public will lose interest. That in the end is a much higher concern for athletics than the loss of any one athlete.

ATR: Do you think it has been a success to come to a country that does not have a track and field tradition? Will this help with the development of athletics in Asia?

LD: If I may, I'll answer these two questions together.

Our hosts Korea and the city of Daegu have warmly embraced these championships. I am especially delighted that the Korean national government designated the 2011 IAAF World Championships as a 'Major National Project,' and so we were always confident that Daegu would deliver a marvellous event, and from what we have witnessed that opinion was fully justified. We have seen good crowds of spectators each day, who are enthusiastically supporting all competitors regardless of nationality.

Korea has had two top-8 place points scorers, and it could have been more as one of their four reigning Asian Games champions qualified for Friday's evening long jump final but then was sadly injured while trying to also get into the triple jump, an event at which he was a finalist in 2007. Though such national competition highs were few, I'm sure they'll help boost our sport's recognition in Korea.

Daegu 2011, the third time that the IAAF World Championships has been hosted in Asia, following Tokyo in 1991 and Osaka in 2007, also offers us wider opportunities to promote and develop athletics in Korea and Asia in general.

Specifically the enhanced sporting facilities in Daegu refurbished and constructed for these championships, let alone the inspiration of seeing and in some cases competing against the world's best athletes, will encourage more Koreans to take part in athletics whether that be recreationally, with its associated health benefits for society, or competitively, which will see a stronger national team emerge

Korea possesses a rich history which, mixed with Korea's rapid economic development in the last few decades, makes it a modern, exciting and dynamic environment in which to hold a major sporting event. The country is one of the Asian tiger economies that are the new dynamos of the world. Asia, a continent possessing more than one-third of the world's population, with its huge financial resources offers us and its peoples the potential to develop our sport massively in Korea and the continent as a whole.

ATR: Does it hurt the sport in the eyes of the public to have such high profile disqualifications of Usain Bolt in the 100m and Dayron Robles in the 110m hurdles?

LD: The disqualifications of these stars or for that matter any athlete at these championships while sad, are part of the rich tapestry of emotional sporting highs and lows which has allowed our sport to endure so successfully in the public's imagination since its foundations were cemented in ancient times, never mind since the 100 years of the IAAF's existence as the sport's world governing body.

We are a resilient sport. In fact athletics' inherent unpredictability is at the very core of the everlasting magic which makes it so interesting to watch.

Take for example (Yelena) Isinbayeva, who finished out of the medals in the pole vault here. She was also defeated two years ago in Berlin and bounced back in Zurich with a world record. Will she do so again this year?

During the last week the expectation about Bolt's and Robles' next competitions became two of the great sports stories around the world. Could Bolt, here in the 200 meters on Friday and Saturday, and Robles, in the Samsung Diamond League and the World Challenge series in the coming weeks, overcome their personal disappointments and successfully re-focus. All true sports fans were eager to know the answers, and we now know the answer to the former. Bolt did indeed bounce back and in what fashion! His Daegu story has made headlines around the world, and so no of course the sport hasn't been damaged in the eyes of the public.

ATR: Generally speaking about the 2017 race, why is each city important for athletics?

LD: To ensure a free and fair vote it would of course be inappropriate for me to talk specifically about any of the bidding cities, but what I will say is that each is a major host center for our sport, both cities annually stage world class invitational meetings.

The bidders offer our sport a choice of either fully established or fast establishing athletics cultures. We are pleased that such major cities wish to stage our World Championships, and are privileged to have such wonderful candidates from which to choose, all of which reconfirms the continued high stature with which the IAAF World Championships and our sport in general is held worldwide.

ATR: How disappointing is it that there is still no U.S. bid for the World Championships?

LD: We are delighted to have a bid currently on the table from the USA for the IAAF World Junior Championship in 2014. The candidates are Bahamas (Nassau), Russia (Kazan), and USA (Eugene, Ore.).

The USA remains one of, if not the strongest overall nations in our sport and so it is natural to desire that the biennial senior IAAF World Championships, the pinnacle competition in our World Athletics Series will be hosted by such a power in our sport. There is no U.S. bid in place for the 2017 championships, which will be decided by Council decision in November but yes, why not 2019 or 2021?

I have in recent years been to major competitions in the USA, the Samsung Diamond League meetings in Eugene and New York and the world famous Penn Relays, and it is clear that the USA would be an enthusiastic host of the World Championships if they can find an appropriate size stadium.

ATR: What do you expect from the athletics competition in London in 2012?

LD: Athletics' wears the mantle of the Olympics' No. 1 sport with great pride. Athletics is the major stadium sport of the Olympic Games and we can confidently look forward to London's 80,000 seats being full for every session next year just as the 90,000 places in Beijing were in 2008. There will be few who would seriously attempt to argue that athletics is not central to the success of the Games, just open any book about the Olympic Movement and it's abundantly clear that our histories are fundamentally joined and we are extremely proud of this association.

Yet neither are we complacent. We are adapting our competition programs to reflect the increasing diversity of the sport and entertainment world from which the public can now choose. Attracting and most importantly retaining the young as both participant and spectator are essential if athletics and the whole Olympic movement are to keep their appeal.

I recently visited London with my friend and Council colleague Seb Coe, and it is clear that the city will offer our sport a brilliant showcase.

The newly-refurbished Renaissance Hotel, which rises above the St. Pancras Station in the centrer of London, will house the IAAF Family during the Games next year. It was a real pleasure to catch the high speed Javelin Train from the station and arrive 6 minutes later at the Olympic Park. I look forward to joining members of the IAAF family on the train as we can be at the stadium within 15 minutes, which is fantastic.

I was also very impressed to see the athletics track now virtually installed and believe that the stadium, which will have the decorative wrap, is certain to be an iconic landmark of the Olympics. London has done an extraordinary job over the past four years to create a venue fit for Olympic dreams to come true, and I can't wait to come back in a year's time.

ATR: Do you still have aspirations to become President of Senegal? If so, what is the next step?

LD: At the moment, I am trying to do my best to help create a better political situation in my native country, using all my experience and wisdom to preserve Senegal's democratic foundations and to create a better future. But at present, I am not in a position to say whether this will mean that I have to leave the office of IAAF President before my four-year term is complete.

ATR: Who will be your successor at IAAF?

LD: Whenever I am asked this question I give the same answer. Basically, I am focusing on being as effective an IAAF President as possible over the coming years but to do this job properly I need to have a very strong and competent team. As for what happens in the future, I think that is to be played out at a later date, but suffice to say that there is no shortage of excellent candidates to take over from me as IAAF President.

Interview conducted by Karen Rosen in Daegu.