In a potentially significant move for Paralympic athletics, Diack, the most powerful man in world athletics, attended the recent IPC World Athletics Championships here for several days.

The move followed the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the IAAF and IPC stating that they will work more closely together and rumours of combining the able-bodied and disabled Championships increased with the move from the IPC to organising their event every two years rather than every four, just as the IAAF do.

Diack, who was attending his second IPC World Athletics Championships having been to the event at Lille in 2002, revealed that he will soon be discussing the issue with IPC President and fellow International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Sir Philip Craven.

"Let me first clarify, the Paralympic World Athletics Championships are not nearly as big as the Paralympics," Diack told insideworldparasport.

"The Paralympics are now so big that it makes sense for them to follow the Olympics but the Paralympic World Athletics Championships are not so big.

"So you need to have a much bigger format with the Paralympic World Championships and to close the gap with our World Championships before you can hold the two events together.

"If that happens in the future, then there is no problem - we can hold them together.

"If not, it could be difficult for the Paralympic World Championships to fill a big stadium like our event does so they must grow first.

"I can say that I am not against it happening but we will have to look at it carefully.

"It is something that I will meet my IOC colleague and my friend Philip Craven to discuss about.

"When we meet together later this year, we will sit down and discuss this question and how cities can bid to host the two events at the same time.

"But the first thing to do is to see how the IAAF can help Paralympic athletics grow.

"We must ask what we can do to help at this stage because hosting the World Championships together could be some way off and there are other things we must do first.

"We would like to support them and there are many ways we can work together to help each other with things like marketing and sponsorship."

Diack added that after promising Sir Philip that he would attend the event, he was very impressed by the action he has saw at the 20,000 capacity QE II Stadium.



"I was in Lille in 2002 for the Paralympic World Championship and it has improved a lot since then," he said.

"I have been very impressed with what I have seen on the track with the standard of the athletes.

"There is a great atmosphere here, the stadium is fantastic and the organisation has been first class.

"I am very happy to come here and I hope that in the future, if I am invited, that I can come to again.

"It is a great event but must continue to grow to be staged alongside our World Championships."

Diack added that he is looking forward to the Paralympic demonstration events that will take place at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu later this year and include a number of wheelchair races.

"They will be exciting and great for the crowd to see," he said.

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