Say it with Flight Socks -- Coe's Gift to 'Knackered' Team
After a year of globe-traversing lobbying in his successful bid to become the new IAAF president, Sebastian Coe vowed Wednesday to buy his "knackered" team flight socks for the journey home.
Coe, speaking after pipping Sergey Bubka 115-92 to succeed Lamine Diack as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said he and his support team had flown 700,000km (435,000 miles) in the past eight months.
"On the plane coming over here, three of them (his team) were asleep before the wheels left the tarmac," the Briton said at the IAAF Congress in Beijing.
"The very nice woman who was looking after us in the cabin said to me, 'They seem to be very relaxed' and I said, 'No they're absolutely knackered'.
"I said to her we've done a lot of flying this year, and she looked at me as if 'I'm cabin crew you don't have to tell me about flying'.
"We've done 700,000km since Christmas, and she said, 'Actually that's quite dangerous, I just thought I'd let you know'," Coe said to laughter.
Turning to his droopy-lidded, airmile-heavy team, the Briton said: "I will buy you all flight socks for the flight home!"
Source: Agence France Presse
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