Monaco, 3rd Dec 2018 – IAAF President Sebastian Coe announced (on 2nd Dec 2018) the creation of the IAAF World Athletics Heritage Plaque.
Coe also opened a public competition to design the plaque and launched a dedicated plaque website section for the new award.
Coe made the announcements while hosting 150 guests at an IAAF Heritage Legends Reception in the Meridien Beach Plaza Hotel, Monaco.
A dozen locations covering all six IAAF continental areas, directly associated with a dozen legends were announced as the inaugural recipients of the IAAF World Athletics Heritage Plaque. It include Chuhei Nambu of Japan (Meiji Jingu Gaien Nikoniko Park, Tokyo)
Japan’s Chuhei Nambu is the only man ever to have held the world record in both horizontal jumps. He set his long jump record in 1931 in the Meiji Jingu stadium which is now long since demolished. In fact, two stadiums have since been built on that spot. This is the site where the former National Stadium, which hosted the 1964 Olympic Games, stood. That is also now gone and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium is now rising in its place.
The audience included representatives and family members of several deceased athletics legends including Paavo Nurmi, Jesse Owens, Fanny Blankers-Koen and Emil Zatopek. On stage each family presented Coe with historic artefacts from their relatives’ famous careers by donation to the IAAF Heritage Collection.
