COE HAS UPHILL TASK IN BID TO BE IOC HEAD

Briton faces 6 other candidates and various challenges in race to replace outgoing Bach

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World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe is the highest profile of the seven candidates to have declared on Sept 16 their bid to succeed International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach.

He will face stiff opposition from, among others, Kirsty Coventry, bidding to become the first woman and African to head the IOC, and cycling boss David Lappartient.

The charismatic Briton, a twotime Olympic 1,500m champion, also has challenges due to the rules laid down last week by the IOC ethics commission.

Coe turns 68 on Sept 29 and although there is room for manoeuvre to raise the retirement age of IOC members and presidents to 74, he will be older than that come the end of an eight-year mandate.

The election will be at the IOC session in Athens, which runs from March 18 to 21 in 2025.

Bach, 70, is standing down after serving 12 years. The German announced at the end of the Paris Games that he would not be seeking another term.

The other four candidates include two from Asia - another continent never to have had an IOC president Jordan's Prince Feisal Al-Hussein and gymnastics chief Morinari Watanabe.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, whose father of the same name was IOC president from 1980 to 2001 and transformed it into a commercial powerhouse, and a surprise entrant, ski federation president Johan Eliasch, round up the candidates.