Birmingham is to bid to stage the 2009 World Half-Marathon Championships as part of a campaign to attract more major athletics events in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

The city already has an excellent reputation having hosted the highly-acclaimed 2003 World Indoor Championships and the European Indoor Championships last year.

Birmingham is also due to be the base of the United States track and field side in 2012.

The ambitious city council's chances of staging the championships appear excellent, with no other rival candidates having yet been revealed.

Birmingham will present its case to the International Association of Athletics Federations' council when it meets in London in early April.

"It would be a tremendous thing if we got it," said Birmingham spokesman Denis Hurst.

"We have a really good history of hosting athletics championships and this year we have the UK trials for the Olympics back in Birmingham."

Birmingham is due to stage a major city-centre half-marathon on October 26 which they hope will act as a test event if they are awarded the world championships.

The first-ever IAAF World Half Marathon Championships were staged on Tyneside in 1992 while Bristol played host nine years later when Paula Radcliffe won the second of her three gold medals.

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