Back On American Soil

The International Association of Athletics Federations recently announced its host sites for upcoming events and two of the selections were notable.

The 2014 World Junior Championships will be contested at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., the first IAAF event on American soil since Boston, Mass., hosted the IAAF Cross Country Championships back in 1992. And the site for the 2017 World Championships will be the new Olympic stadium in London.

Senior IAAF Vice President Bob Hersh, part of the bidding team presenting to the IAAF Council on behalf of Eugene, said, "It's a very proud and exciting moment that after so many years of being in the position to host the world's athletes in a major world athletics series event. There are challenges ahead but I know that the people of Eugene and our national federation are going to meet those challenges and do everything to make this a very successful event."

The dates have yet to be determined, although the initial proposed dates are July 22-27, 2014. Confirmation should come in the near future.

"We are incredibly thrilled and humbled by the IAAF's confidence to award the 2014 World Junior Championships to TrackTown USA," said University of Oregon Coach Vin Lananna, Chairman of the Bidding Committee.

Meanwhile, London was picked, 16-10 over Doha, Qatar, to host the Worlds in 2017. Helping push the vote was the recent determination by British officials to keep the Stadium track in place for decades to come.

Said IAAF President Lamine Diack, "We have fought very hard to have this stadium staying a stadium of Athletics, and now we are all agreed it is staying with Athletics, and 25,000 (capacity) is too small for London coming down from 85, so we now will have 60,000 (seats). So I am happy."

Diack was also pleased with the interest in the decision, adding, "We had never in the history of the bidding process for the IAAF World Championships this type of ceremony with this amount of interest in the TV and newspapers."

The 2013 Worlds will take place in Moscow and in 2015 the Championships will move to Beijing.