IAAF pleased with preparation for 2015 Beijing worlds

A senior IAAF official expressed his satisfaction with the preparation work for the 2015 Beijing World Championships following the coordination site visit which concluded here on Tuesday.

"With six months to go, the organizing committee are nearly ready. All is well prepared," said Helmut Digel, IAAF Council member and Chairman of IAAF Coordination Committee. "We were having a two-day meeting with the organizing committee and this meeting was very successful."

"The organizing committee is having a lot of good ideas. The opening ceremony of our championships will be very special," Digel said. "The spectators from all over the world will be having beautiful experiences in this metropolitan city of Beijing."

The 2015 IAAF World Championships will be held in Beijing's National Stadium from Aug. 22 to 30, the first time for the biyearly track and field gala to come to China.

Known as the "Bird's Nest", the National Stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics events of the 2008 Olympic Games.

"We are beginning our ticket launch at the end of march. And we will have a lot of activities to promote this outstanding event," Digel said. "Usain Bolt himself is going to be our ambassador as well as Yelena Isinbayeva, our famous pole vault hero."

The organizers had also selected seven Chinese track and field athletes to work as promotion ambassadors for the event, including Athens Olympic hurdling champion Liu Xiang, London Olympic race walking gold medalist Chen Ding as well as the rising long jumper Li Jinzhe, who finished second at the 2013 IAAF World Indoor Championships.

"To summarize, we are perfectly in time and the organizing committee are really working professionally. We believe these World Championships are going to be our biggest success," Digel added.