News Archive

Germany will go ahead with the strongest possible contender: the capital. The

German athletics federation, Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband (DLV), announced

that Berlin will be the city with which the federation will apply for the

IAAF’s World Championships in 2005. A national selection was necessary as

Stuttgart, the venue of the World Championships in 1993, and Munich, where this

year’s European Championships will take place, also applied for the most

prestigious event in global sports behind the Olympics for the hosting city.

The IAAF will now decide on 14th April in Nairobi which city will get the

championships in 2005: Rome, Budapest, Brussels, Helsinki, Moscow or Berlin.

“It was a difficult task to decide, because all three cities presented

excellent bids. So I would like to stress that in my eyes there is no looser.

But in the end we voted for Berlin. And now we will all do our very best to

take this chance and get the World Championships to Berlin”, Clemens

Prokop, the president of the DLV, announced on Friday evening in Sindelfingen,

where the German indoor championships take place during the weekend. The

presidency of the DLV first voted. Six of the federation’s top officials

chose Berlin, three Munich and two Stuttgart. But that was not the end of the

vote, it was just to give an advice before the decisive round. The 20

presidents of the local federations had the last word together again with the

presidency of the DLV. But Berlin came through again, surprisingly clear: 22

votes were in favour of the capital. “This is a very good decision. I

believe if you see things objective Berlin must be top. It is very important

for the sport in Germany that the capital gets the chance of applying for such

an event”, Armin Baumert, a former long jumper and coach of high jumper

Andrea Baumert (Arens), said. Baumert is the head of the elite sport department

of the German Sports Federation (DSB).

The main aspect that was in favour of Berlin was the stadium. The Olympic

Stadium will be completely rebuild by the end of 2004. And as this happens with

the requirements of international athletics in mind, the German capital will

boost a superb athletics arena. Berlin also offered more than enough hotels and

the huge International Congress Centre being just two miles away from the

stadium. As Munich and Stuttgart the city guaranteed to finance the

championships. Another factor, not mentioned by DLV officials, probably was

that Berlin’s international chances are generally rated higher than

Stuttgart’s and Munich’s.

For Berlin the World Championships would be the most important sports event

since the Olympics back in 1936. “I am of course very happy with the

result. But I think we deserved it because we presented an excellent bid. Our

main feature is of course the Olympic Stadium, but also the hotel situation is

a very good one in Berlin”, Christoph Kopp said. Kopp is the president of

Berlin’s athletics federation and a well-known figure in international

athletics as, for example, for many years he was the elite race director of the

Berlin Marathon.

“In contrast to Berlin’s Olympic bid for 2000 this time

politics, media and the economy of Berlin are all behind the bid for the World

Championships. They all will work together to get a fantastic event”,

Christoph Kopp said.