(CNN) -- China will host the World Athletics Championships for the first time in 2015, when Beijing will become the fourth Asian city to stage the biennial event.
Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Olympic Games, will follow in the footsteps of Japan's Tokyo (1991) and Osaka (2007), and South Korea's Daegu -- which will host next year's 13th edition.
"To help build up our sport and the culture of athletics in a country of 1.6 billion inhabitants is a great opportunity," International Association of Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack said in a statement on Saturday.
"As we sometimes say, China is not a country, it's a continent. So this is a fantastic opportunity for our sport and for the sport in China".
CNN
