The Daily Mail reports that Coe has put his name forward to be the next vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

 

The elections take place in Osaka, Japan, in August just before the World Championships take place there.

 

It raises the possibility of Coe replacing the current IAAF president Lamine Diack when he steps down in 2011 - just a year before London stages the Olympics.

 

Coe, 50, the double Olympic 1500metres champion who is also a member of the IAAF ruling council, is not certain of election as one of four vice-presidents, with four candidates putting themselves forward for the two positions open to Europeans.

 

Standing against him are another Olympic winner and six-time world pole vault champion Sergei Bubka, who is 43, Finland's foreign minister Ilkka Kanerva, 59, and a German, Dr Helmut Digel, 63, who has been a vice-president since 2001.

 

Coe's election would make him a favourite to succeed Diack, and the presidency of the IAAF brings with it an automatic place on the International Olympic Committee.

 

The full article can be read on http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/article-23400848-details/Coe sets pace in long race to take over as IAAF chief/article.do.