London Stadium Reflects On 'Truly Memorable' Championships

London Stadium brought the curtain down on its golden summer with the climax of the IAAF World Athletics Championships.

The competition ended a run of events at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park venue which saw in excess of one million athletics fans visit for the World Championships, IPC World ParaAthletics and Muller Anniversary Games, all delivered during a period of just five weeks.

Competed over 14 sessions across ten days, the World Championships saw 705,000 tickets sold, sealing a Guinness World Record for the number of sales at any IAAF World Championships event. 

It drew a domestic television audience that peaked at 10 million for the conclusion of the 4x100m relays on Saturday 13 August.

London Stadium 185 CEO Linda Lennon CBE paid tribute to the quality of the event, and expressed a desire to look ahead to the prospect of hosting global events across other sports too.

"We’re rightfully proud of every single person that has played a part in delivering an extraordinary event,” she said.

"The performances of the athletes deserve all the headlines but behind the scenes, we have seen stadium staff work hand in hand with the London 2017 team to deliver a flawless championship.

"The task of delivering a season of Premier League football season, four sell-out concerts, a rugby league international and 31 sessions of international athletics is unprecedented and it’s testament to the quality of this stadium, and those that work behind the scenes, that we have hosted such a calendar of events in the past 12 months.

"Our task now is to continue to demonstrate that London Stadium is ready to host the major events that ticket buyers want to see. 

"We want national and global governing bodies to know that we are ready and waiting to talk, and to continue to successfully work in partnership with our existing clients.”

Lord Seb Coe, chairman of the IAAF, celebrated the Championships, and looked to the future of the competition amid discussions and desire for it to return to London.

"I can’t remember in the years that I’ve watched championship athletics seeing more competitive races or competing stories,” he said.

"The observation which i’ve heard time and time again is ‘can we keep bringing them back here’.

"The athletes raise their game when they run in front of full passionate stadiums. The crowd have created the theatre here.

"We have to take the championships back to the places where the public want them and where we can move all of our objectives on.”

Coe’s views were mirrored by The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who presented Usain Bolt with the iconic lane 7 from the original 2012 track as the athlete bid farewell to the Stadium, and athletics.

“The IAAF World Athletics Championships really captured the spirit of London and will live long in the memory as another chapter in an unforgettable summer of sport in our great city,” said Khan.

“We’ve seen medals won and personal bests smashed, and there’s no better honour for London than staging the final championship races of legends Mo Farah and Usain Bolt. 

“More than 700,000 people filled London Stadium, beating all previous attendance records, while millions around the globe have been watching what has been a truly memorable World Athletics Championships."

The run of athletics followed a month of concerts at London Stadium, drawing attendances in excess of 250,000 over four event days.