Budapest pulls out of race for 2017 worlds

DAEGU, South Korea, (Reuters) – Budapest has  withdrawn its candidacy for the 2017 world athletics  championships, leaving a three-way fight between London,  Barcelona and Doha.   

The governing International Association of Athletics  Federations (IAAF), in a statement after a council meeting in  Daegu on Monday, did not say why the Hungarian capital had  pulled out of the running.   

Spain had previously expressed an interest without deciding  which city would be the country’s candidate.  
The hosts will be selected by the IAAF Council at a meeting  in Monaco in November after the final list of official  candidates is announced on Sept. 1.   
Daegu is hosting the championships this month with Moscow  and Beijing following in 2013 and 2015.   

London’s bid has been clouded by a row over the 2012 Olympic  Stadium, with Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur  seeking a judicial review over the decision to allow West Ham  United to take over the facility after next year’s Games.  
 
However, London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, an IAAF  vice-president who is in Daegu, indicated this month that the  bid will go ahead with full support from the British government  and London mayor Boris Johnson.