Olympic track will remain despite Spurs court action

Complete: the Olympic stadium running track
13 April 2012

The inspectors of London's bid for the 2017 world athletics championships were today handed a "cast-iron guarantee" by the Government that the running track will remain in place at London's Olympic Stadium regardless of whether Tottenham win their court action.

A letter from the Treasury Solicitor making the guarantee was given to the IAAF evaluation commission, which is headed by senior vice-president Bob Hersh of the United States, on their three-day visit to London.

Hersh had a meeting this morning with sports minister Hugh Robertson, London mayor Boris Johnson and London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe - also an IAAF vice-president - before the nine-man evaluation commission went to the Olympic Stadium.

Robertson confirmed that Hersh had sought guarantees about the future of the stadium - Tottenham are seeking a judicial review of the decision to award it to West Ham after the London 2012 Games.

He said: "We had a private meeting with Bob Hersh where we gave him a letter from the Treasury Solicitor, the highest government lawyer, to guarantee that there will be a running track at the Olympics Stadium in legacy mode.

"We also made it absolutely clear about the so-called legal threat. Tottenham's actions are only about the process, not the fact, and if they were to win in the High Court we would simply start the whole process again and next time around the provision of track would be non-negotiable."

Spurs' bid for the stadium had included removing the athletics track, while West Ham will keep it and allow the venue to remain the centre-point for London's 2017 bid.

Robertson added: "Bob Hersh explained to us why he needed to seek these guarantees, we provided him with that letter and he had and no further questions.

"We also made clear that this was not the theoretical bid of 10 years ago, and we wanted them to go to the Olympic Stadium to see it, feel it and sense what the world athletics championships will look like in London in 2017."

Hersh and his team will head to London's rivals Doha tomorrow, ahead of a decision by the IAAF on November 11.

Given Qatar's successful recent record in bidding for major sporting events, including the 2022 football World Cup, London have it all to do but Robertson insisted they should have confidence.

He said: "Winning this bid is our major priority for the autumn and we have fantastic strengths.

"We have a cast-iron guarantee on the stadium, we have made a guarantee that we will run the international inspiration programme until 2017, and there are the sponsorship opportunities.

"The championships have been in Daegu, then they are going to Moscow and Beijing, so it's probably about time to come back to Western Europe as that's a market they need to service.

"As our Olympics preparations show, we also know how to look after the athletes."

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