Coe, Bubka in inaugural IAAF Hall of Fame
MONACO (AP) — Sebastian Coe and Sergei Bubka are the latest athletic greats to join the IAAF’s inaugural Hall of Fame.
Those already named as members to mark the centenary year of athletics’ governing body include: Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Abebe Bikila, Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Al Oerter, Adhemar da Silva, Ed Moses, Fanny Blankers-Koen, Betty Cuthbert, Wang Junxia, Irena Szewinska, Mildred Didriksen, Michael Johnson, Dan O’Brien and Alberto Juantorena.
Another five athletes will make up the inaugural class to 24. The official induction ceremony will take place at the IAAF Centenary Gala on Nov. 24 in Barcelona.
The decision to induct the two IAAF vice-presidents was announced yesterday.
“I am delighted that two more of my Council colleagues will join the inaugural membership of the IAAF Hall of Fame,” IAAF President Lamine Diack said.
“With the creation of the Hall of Fame we set out to honor the lifetime achievements of our greatest athletes, and heighten public awareness of our sport and its rich history.
“In Sergei and Seb we have two great champions and record breakers whose contribution to our sport’s success cannot be underestimated.”
Coe is head of the London Olympics organising committee. The Briton won 1,500-metre gold and 800-metre silver medals at the 1980 Moscow Games and repeated the feat four years later at Los Angeles.
Pole vaulter Bubka is the only athlete to have won six world championships in the same individual discipline, from 1983 to 1999. The 48-year-old Soviet-Ukrainian also took gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Bubka’s indoor and outdoor world records still stand. He vaulted 6.14 metres outside in July 1994, while he cleared 6.15m inside in February 1993.
Owens, who died in 1980, was posthumously made an inaugural member of the Hall of Fame, more than 75 years after he won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
