World Championship Athletics live on Channel 4

June 27, 2011   ·   1 Comments

Channel 4 has confirmed that four-time Olympic gold-medallist Michael Johnson will form part of  a line-up of sporting greats hosting the channel’s live and exclusive coverage of the IAAF World Athletics Championships 2011.

The world-famous, nine-time world champion will join main presenter Ortis Deley on the flagship Channel 4 programme to give his views on the action from the track.

Johnson, who has made regular appearances on BBC Athletics programming is universally recognised as one of the greatest athletes in the history of track and field, and is set to bring his own experience and expert knowledge to the IAAF Championships.

Jamie Aitchison, Editor, Live Sports, Channel 4, said: “Michael is renowned for his frank, incisive and illuminating views and we are delighted to have him as our lead analyst in our exciting team.”

Ortis Deley will make his Channel 4 presenting debut as the host of the live programming in the studio with Jon Rawling and Rob Walker covering the action from the commentary box. Sonja McClaughlin will report from trackside on all the IAAF Championship news.

Channel 4 has also appointed a host of top athletes to the commentary team. World Championship relay gold medallist Iwan Thomas continues his work for Channel 4 following his presentation of That Paralympic Show, whilst Olympic medal-winning 400m sprinter Katharine Merry and World Championship and Commonwealth Games multi-medal-winning decathlete Dean Macey will also feature.

To promote Channel 4′s exclusive coverage of the IAAF, the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, has taken to the starting block to star in a specially-made ident, which will air prior to and throughout the IAAF World Athletic Championships.

Channel 4 will show almost 65 hours of coverage of the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships, which take place from 27 August to 4 September in Daegu, South Korea, including all sessions live plus a regular highlights programme in prime time. Live coverage starts in the early hours of Saturday 27 August from 1am with the evening session live on Channel 4 at 10.30am.

Channel 4 snatched the rights to the championships from the BBC last September, ending their 27 year hold on the broadcast rights.

The channel recently launched a specially-made ident in the run up to it’s coverage of the IAAF World Athletics Championships, which sees the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, transformed into the iconic ‘4′ logo.  See below :

Tags: Channel 4, IAAF World Championships, Iwan Thomas, Michael Johnson, Ortis Deley