Rome, Poland's Bydgoszcz to host reallocated IAAF events

Athletics' world governing body IAAF announced Thursday evening that Italian capital city Rome and Poland's Bydgoszcz have been voted to host the two 2016 events Russia lost over doping.

Emerging from four candidate cities for the World Race Walking Team Championships, which were to be in Cheboksary, Rome beat Ecuador's Guayaquil (4 votes), Kiev of Ukraine (4) and Monterrey of Mexico (2) to win the bid on 9 votes.

The World Under-20 Championships, which were due to be in Kazan, go unanimously to the sole bidder Bydgoszcz as Australia and India had expressed interest but did not submit bids.

A total of 19 Council members took part in the two votes after an accelerated bidding process was opened on December 3, 2015 for the reallocation of the two IAAF World Athletics Series competitions following the full suspension of the Russian athletic federation ARAF.

By 9 December seven IAAF Member Federations had sent letters of interest, with five countries going on to formally submit bid applications by 22 December 2015.

IAAF President Sebastian Coe, who did not participate and will also not vote in any future host city decisions for the sake of neutrality as the head of the Council, commented: "Many congratulations to Rome and Bydgoszcz. The speed in which you assembled detailed applications and at such short notice has been inspiring."

"I gratefully acknowledge the interest shown by all the member federations who took part in this process. Thank you on behalf of the athletes for helping us to ensure that these competitions will take place," he added.

The World Race Walking Team Championships will be staged in Rome on May 7-8, while Bydgoszcz to hold the world junior championships on July 19-24. Enditem