Sebastian Coe was elected as the new head of international athletics yesterday and promised to stand by his campaign pledge to set up an independent anti-doping body for the embattled sport.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has been battered by allegations over the last three weeks of widespread doping in track and field.

While the 58-year-old Briton said an independent body was the only way to ensure an end to any question about the IAAF’s vigilance, he also said he was inheriting a “very strong sport” from Senegalese Lamine Diack.

A twice Olympic 1,500 metres champion, and head of the organisers for the 2012 London Olympics, Coe won the presidency by beating Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka 115-92 in a ballot of the IAAF’s 50th Congress.

He starts his new job on August 31, the day after the World Championships end in Beijing.

“I’ve had the joys of Olympic competition, I’ve had the joys of being part of something special in London a few years ago, but this for me is the pinnacle,” he said.

“It is my sport, it’s my passion, it’s the thing that I’ve always wanted to do.

“I will do everything within my human capabilities to make sure our sport maintains the values, maintains the strong legacies and the very, very firm foundations that president Lamine Diack has left me,” he added.

The election took place against the background of a public relations crisis for the IAAF, which was accused of failing in its duty to address the scourge of doping.

A former Conservative politician in Britain, Coe has aggressively defended the IAAF’s record on doping since the leak of blood test data to the media.

But yesterday, he made no mention of the subject in his speeches to delegates before and after the vote, only addressing the issue at the ensuing news conference.

“There is zero tolerance to the abuse of doping in my sport and I want to continue that,” he said.

“I will maintain that to the very highest level of vigilance.”

The plan to establish an independent anti-doping agency was one of the central pledges in Coe’s election campaign.

The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the body which currently oversees doping control around the world, congratulated Coe on his victory.

“We look forward to a positive and strong relationship with the new president in his avowed plans to protect the rights of the clean athlete,” WADA president and fellow Briton Craig Reedie said in a statement.

Meanwhile, former Olympic pole vault champion Bubka was yesterday elected one of four IAAF vice presidents.

The others are Cuban Alberto Juantorena, Qatari Dahlan Al Hamad and Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, of Cameroon.

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