Intro:

SNTV spoke to Lord Sebastian Coe on Wednesday in London, as he launched his campaign to run for the IAAF presidency.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sebastian Coe, IAAF presidential candidate:

"First of all, it is good that we have athletes that are well paid for what they are doing and I will always be a defender of that. It is important - they have financial security to maintain, it's a short career and it's something that they devote over half their young lives to. But it is also important that we get the best athletes out as often as we can to create the narrative, to create the excitement. My kids get up at unearthly hours on a Sunday morning to watch sport that is normally a head-to-head - it's Hamilton-Rosberg, it's Federer-Nadal - that's what excites people. If you look at the big indelible moments in track and field it's normally been around head-to-heads."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sebastian Coe, IAAF presidential candidate (on allegations surrounding Russia doping in track and field):

"They're clearly serious allegations but we do have an ethics committee. I think the IAAF this morning confirmed that it was the subject of an ethics committee enquiry. You're hardly going to be surprised when I tell you that I don't think it is appropriate to maintain a running commentary until we've understood the full nature of the allegations and the internal investigation that clearly the ethics committee will need to have around these."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Sebastian Coe, IAAF presidential candidate (on possible changes to the Diamond League format):

"I think the Diamond League have done a lot of things but I think most people who are organising the delivery of the one day events, the athletes themselves, the coaches, the managers, all recognise now that this is probably the time to look at the format, probably to refresh it, maybe to look at the number of Diamond League events and to make sure that, as we said before the success of those events is predicted entirely on the athletes and the profile of those athletes, and we need to make sure they're out there on a regular basis."