Sports / Other Sports |
Taegu 2011 bid promises peace dividend(Reuters)Updated: 2006-12-06 09:39 DOHA, Dec 5 - Bringing the world championships to Taegu in 2011 would not only revive flagging global interest in athletics, it could also help ease political tensions on the Korean peninsula, according to the chairman of the bid. Yoo Chong-ha, a former ambassador to the United Nations, is confident the bid from South Korea's third-largest city is stronger than those of the other confirmed applicants -- Brisbane, Gothenburg and Moscow. "The IAAF wants to alternate the world championships, so with the 2009 competition in Berlin, the 2011 championships should come to Asia," Yoo told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the 15th Asian Games in Doha. The hosts for the 2011 and 2013 championships will be announced at an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council meeting on March 27 in Mombasa, Kenya. Yoo conceded that since Oceania had never been given a athletics world championships and that Osaka, Japan is hosting the 2007 event, there was an argument for Brisbane being awarded the 2011 championships. "But you have to consider the size of the Asian continent -- four billion people," he said. "Asia needs more major international events to spread enthusiasm for athletics in an area where it isn't hugely popular." Soccer and baseball were still the top sports but athletics was taking off in Asia, said Yoo, good news for the sport given the waning interest in Europe and America. PEACEMAKING ROLE The centrepiece of Taegu's bid is a 66,000 capacity stadium on the outskirts of the city, which was used to host four matches during the 2002 soccer World Cup. Taegu, which is a 50-minute flight from the capital Seoul, is aiming to become the sports hub of South Korea, said Yoo, adding that the city was building an athletes village with state-of-the-art training facilities minutes away from the stadium. The city hosted an international meet earlier this year and 50,000 people turned up to see Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang and Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva -- both world record holders. "Fifty thousand people with only two top stars on show," he added. "Imagine how many would come to see all the top athletes." Yoo estimated the cost of hosting the 2011 world championships at $60-70 million, with the city getting an economic boost of $250-300 million. But the pay-off could be much greater in a diplomatic context, helping develop relations between North Korea and the international community. "This is a case where sports can play the role of peacemaker in a politically tense area," said Yoo, who has been a diplomat for almost 40 years. "That will be a point for the IAAF to consider."
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