Ximena Restrepo, who is seeking to replace Lord Sebastian Coe as president of World Athletics, thinks greater co-operation between smaller federations will help the continued growth of the sport globally.

The former athlete who is a serving senior vice-president of the sports global governing body thinks Jamaica could be a leader in their area given the footprint it has left on the region.

Coe, who has served the maximum three terms allowed, is not eligible to extend his term, which will end after the World Athletics Elective Congress in Beijing, China, just before the start of the World Athletics Championships in September next year.

Restrepo has high praises for Coe, and while acknowledging that it will be a tough act to follow, said World Athletics needed a capable leader to carry on the work of building track and field globally.

“Replacing Seb Coe, getting into his shoes, is going to be very difficult,” she told the Sunday Observer in an interview during the recent World Athletics Under-20 championships in Eugene, Oregon, “I do believe that Seb has done a great job, but I also believe that we need somebody to continue growing the sport.”

Ximena Restrepo, World Athletics vice-president

The former NCAA 400m champion and current Colombian national record holder in the 200m and 400m said Coe had taken over the presidency at a time when World Athletics was at a crossroads, with the former President Lamine Diack under investigation, but had weathered the storms.

“He has done a lot, he really got World Athletics when we were in a pretty bad situation, in a crisis, and and we’re blooming now,” she asserted. “We really are. So we have to take advantage of that and keep growing, keep being creative, keep being brave because we have to keep being the leaders. The same thing that Seb has done we have to keep doing that.”

Athletes will always be the central focus of the sport, she said, but added that the federations must start looking out for each others as well.

“We have to grow our sport, and I will be very focused, obviously, on the athletes because they are the the main asset that we have in our sports,” she told the Observer. “But also, I do believe that we have to work a lot with our federations.”

“In World Athletics, we have athletes’ commissions, we have coaches’ commission, we have all kinds of commissions, but I do believe that we have to create a better link with the presidents of the federations too,” she said. “I’ve been talking to many federations in the area in the Caribbean and I do believe that some of them feel a little bit lonely. We need to create more partnership between the presidents. Try to get together, because the islands are, you’re very tiny islands.”

Restrepo, who now lives in Chile, said she is not a stranger to the Caribbean either. “I lived in Curação, so I know a little bit about the islands long, long time ago. But I do understand that the islands people are very proud, very, very happy, very, very, very outgoing people. But we need to create a better bond between the islands. Try to make things work not only for one island, but for the whole Caribbean, at least that’s the way, more or less. I’ve been talking with the other presidents, [to] see if we can create a web.”

One of the ways this could be done, she said, was sharing information, and pointed out that Jamaica were leaders in that aspect already. “Let’s say you want to have, I don’t know, a course for coaches. Let’s do it in a place where other islands can come, and we can share information, we can share knowledge so that not only one island has this.”

She described Jamaica as “leaders”, saying, “You’re well known from all over the world and really many many other athletes from other islands are going to Jamaica, to high school, and you got good universities there too, so Jamaica is like the brighter, the sun in the Caribbean, the one we have to follow, and we have to really involve, get involved with world athletics.”

Outside of Jamaica, she said the other islands had started to make their names on the global stage with the sport growing more and more in the region.

“The women’s 100m champion from the Olympics is from St Lucia [Julien Alfred] and we have Grenada winning gold medals at the highest level,” she said, “You [Jamaica] has been on the chart for years, and Trinidad and Tobago has always been very good, but some smaller ones are also getting better and better.”