Kenya's Isaiah Kiplagat to contest for IAAF vice presidency

Isaiah Kiplagat

Nairobi, Nov 28 (IANS)

Athletics Kenya (AK) president Isaiah Kiplagat has announced his candidature for one of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) vice presidency positions at next year's elections. Kiplagat revealed his campaigns were already under way for the plum post, reported Xinhua citing Capital Sport.

Sitting vice presidents Sebastian Coe of Britain and Sergey Bubka of Ukraine are eyeing to succeed Senegalese national Lamine Diack as president.

"They all know that I'm in the running and now my candidature can be made public. Lamine has led us to greater heights in the sport since he took over and my mission is to ensure the next glorious chapter is written," Kiplagat said Thursday.

"The experience I have in administration of the sport as president of AK and a long-serving IAAF Council member will help our new president in ensuring our most popular sport in the Olympics grows even further," Kiplagat said.

He pledged to give a more detailed mission statement for his campaign later as he focuses on the formation of a Local Organizing Committee for the 2017 IAAF World Youth Championships awarded to Kenya by the IAAF Governing Council in Monaco last weekend.

The seasoned septuagenarian who has headed AK for 22 years is facing rebellion at home with 14 out of 16 federation branches intent on ousting him and it took a court injunction delivered to them last Friday at the gates of the federation's Riadha House headquarters here to halt a Special General Meeting (SGM) they had convened to ratify Kiplagat's removal.

A court case challenging the SGM will be heard Friday although behind the scenes efforts to diffuse the simmering row are going on with the branch bosses being given audience by Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Arts and Culture, Hassan Wario.

Top retired and active athletes including Paul Tergat and IOC Member have called on both sides to rally behind the 2017 World Youth.