LONDON — Sebastian Coe is renewing acquaintances with some track greats in Africa this week and updating officials on preparations for the 2012 London Olympics.
Coe, the former middle-distance runner who heads London's Olympic organizing body, traveled to Abuja, Nigeria, for the general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa.
"My career was in large part defined in a period of the most extraordinary emergence of any continent into international sport," Coe said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, referring to Africa's legendary distance runners.
In his address to the assembly Tuesday, Coe encouraged African Olympic teams to use training camps in Britain. He said the government is working on offering multiple entry visas for athletes to come to the U.K. for training and competition ahead of the games.
And Coe assured African athletes that they won't feel far from home during the Olympics.
"We have large African communities in London, from Nigeria to Ethiopia, from Morocco to South Africa," he said. "We really do have the opportunity of providing a background in all our venues where every competitor is competing in front of a home crowd."
Coe said the Africans were an inspiration for his athletic success, which included back-to-back gold medals in the 1,500 meters at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics and eight outdoor and three indoor world records.
"I'm on a continent that understands the Olympics, understands Olympic sport and certainly gets the bigger of the Olympic sports," he said, referring to track and field. "It's a special place for me to be giving an Olympic update."
Coe said he was especially happy to meet up with Kipchoge "Kip" Keino, considered "the father of African distance running" who won gold in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Mexico Games and 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
"He was one of my inspirations as a middle-distance runner," Coe said.
Keino is now head of Kenya's national Olympic committee and a member of the International Olympic Committee.
Also attending the African assembly were Morocco's Hicham el Guerrouj, winner of the 1,500 and 5,000 gold medals at the 2004 Athens Games; Morocco's Nawal el Moutawakel, the first woman from a predominantly Muslim country to win a gold medal, capturing the 400 hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games; and former Namibian sprinter Frank Fredericks, a silver medalist in the 100 and 200 at the 1992 and '96 Olympics.
El Moutawakel and Fredericks, chairman of the IOC athletes' commission, serve on the powerful IOC executive board. El Guerrouj is an IOC member.
Coe also met with Nigerian government sports officials to discuss London's "international inspiration program," which aims to develop sport among youth in various countries.
Coe spoke about the long-term use of the Olympic facilities, particularly the new 80,000-capacity main stadium that will host the track and field competition during the games. Organizers intend to reduce the venue to 25,000 seats after the Olympics to serve as a venue for track and field and other events.
"That was a very strong part of the vision that helped us gain African support during the bidding process," Coe said. "It's important that we keep that commitment."
Coe's visit coincided with presentations from the four cities bidding for the 2016 Olympics -- Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. The IOC will select the host city on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen.
"I recognize a lot of what we were doing at this stage," Coe said. "It's a long haul for all these cities."
As someone who certainly knew how to pace himself in a race, Coe had some advice for the 2016 candidates.
"No, you are not in the last lap," he told them. "In strict terms, you're coming down the back straight on the penultimate lap. You're waiting to get into position for the longish run home."
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