(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."
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The 15th edition of the World Athletics Championships will be held in China
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Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Olympics, named as fourth Asian city to stage event
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China continues dominance of the Asian Games it is hosting in Guangzhou
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Clean sweep of seven table tennis titles extends China's gold medal tally to 138
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