World Athletics President: Budapest ready to host Olympics – UPDATED

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said late on Sunday that he was satisfied with the World Athletics Championships held in Budapest in all aspects, he considered Hungary ready to host the Olympics and personally encouraged the country to bid.

Coe told an international press conference that the World Athletics Championships had been hosted by Budapest at the highest quality. “This is an ambitious city, this is an ambitious country, and I have no reason to doubt they would put up a very credible bid,” he said commenting on a potential bid by Budapest to host the Olympics.

“I can’t remember a better atmosphere at a world championship,” he added. Coe said most international ticket saled had gone to British, German, US, French and Spanish fans and more than half a billion people followed the events over television during the first half of the championships.

State secretary for sports Adam Schmidt told the event that he hoped the many sports diplomats and sports managers who attended the world championships and personally experienced its quality in Budapest would support Hungary’s endeavour to host the Olympics.

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 UPDATE – Government: World Athletics Championships shows ‘global success of joining forces’ (11.19 am)

The World Athletics Championships in Budapest showed the global success of joining forces, the co-leader of the organining committee said on Monday. Balázs Fürjes told MTI that the success of the “largest ever sports event in Hungary” was also demonstrated by the main figures.

Over 2,200 athletes from 195 countries competed at the event and the number of trainers and additional team members was well above 5,000, he said. Some 2,500 Hungarian volunteers offered their services to fans and participants, with fans coming from more than 120 countries, he added.

The number of tickets sold was above 400,000, exceeding the expectation of the World Athletics international organisation, he said. During the nine days of the championships, the average occupancy of the events venue was over 95 percent during the evening finals and the majority of finals were sold out, he said. Furjes said on Facebook earlier on Monday that in agreement with WA president Sebastian Coe, he had proposed granting an International Fair Play award to the volunteers who assisted at events during the championships.