Ukrainian Sergey Bubka, vice-president of the IAAF, expressed his great happiness at being in Doha to attend part of the Asian federation meetings, held for the first time in Doha after Major General Dahlan Al Hamad took over the presidency of the continental federation. On the sidelines of his attendance at the committee meetings he said: I came representing IAAF president Lamine Diack, and we consider the Asian continent an important part of the world, and we rely heavily on the current direction of the Asian federation to develop the sport on the continent, while praising the great effort being made by Dahlan Al Hamad and the rest of the Asian federation board members for the advancement of the mother of sports
Sergey Bubka noted that he was optimistic that the work of the Asian Athletics Association would succeed under the leadership of Dahlan Al Hamad, who has special expertise and administrative capabilities, as well as high sporting acumen, and that the Asian federation would certainly benefit from his experience and abilities, in addition to his having purposeful programmes aimed at development and modernisation, saying: We at the IAAF are firmly behind him and all the officials for the advancement of everything that serves athletics on the largest yellow continent in the world
Sergey Bubka stressed that the Asian Athletics Association board meeting to be held officially would be successful because the preparations for it had been carried out superbly, and that the agenda would certainly include everything of importance to the sport in Asia, noting that the yellow continent is rich in resources and human and logistical elements, and that energies must be unleashed in Asia to work for the advancement of the mother of sports, concluding his remarks by saying he was optimistic with Dahlan Al Hamad at the head of the Asian Athletics Association
