London Mayor Boris Johnson announced Wednesday morning that the Olympic Stadium will host the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships, according to Josh Burrows of the LONDON TIMES. The "second biggest event" in the Paralympic calendar will take place over nine days in July, a little more than a month before London hosts the IAAF World Athletics Championships. Johnson, who is also the London Legacy Development Corp. chairman said, "This year London just staged the best spectacle of sport the world has seen. By bringing the IPC Athletics World Championships to our wonderful Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park just a month before the World Athletics Championships, the capital is poised to recreate the magic of 2012" (LONDON TIMES, 12/19). REUTERS' Martyn Herman reported this year's Paralympics athletics events attracted sell-out 80,000 crowds with the performances of British 100m runner Jonnie Peacock and wheelchair racer David Weir providing "some of the most memorable moments of the Games." Int'l Paralympic Committee CEO Xavier Gonzalez said that London had helped raise the bar for Paralympic athletics. Gonzalez said, "We cannot wait to see Great Britain embrace the Paralympic Movement once again with open arms" (REUTERS, 12/19). In London, Ashling O'Connor wrote the city "was rewarded for hosting the greatest Paralympics ever." The decision to approve the bid over a proposal from Doha, Qatar, "will make London the first city to host the two championships concurrently." Paralympians Aled Davies, the Paralympic discus champion, reacted enthusiastically. Davies tweeted: “Yes! We get to do it all again” (LONDON TIMES, 12/20).
MORE PARALYMPICS: XINHUA reported the First Far Eastern paralympic sports festival "opened in Khabarovsk on Tuesday." Athletes from four regions of the Russia's Far East were present. About 100 athletes came to the festival "from the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai, the Amur Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region" (XINHUA, 12/18).
