The IAAF announced the candidates in a statement after its council meeting in Daegu. The South Korean city is hosting this year’s World Championships this month, while Moscow and Beijing will stage the 2013 and 2015 editions of the Championships. “These potential candidates will have to send their bidding documents by September 1 and the Council will decide in November (at a meeting in Monaco),” read an IAAF statement. The IAAF did not say why the Hungarian capital of Budapest had pulled out of the race.

London’s bid for the Championships received a boost on Monday when an independent investigation from auditors at Moore Stephens found that the procedure surrounding the decision to award the anchor tenancy for the 2012 Olympic Stadium to West Ham United had not been compromised. Auditors were called in after newspaper reports claimed that secret payments had been made to an executive on the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), the body responsible for finding tenants for the venues after the Games.

West Ham is committed to keeping an athletics track around the pitch at the stadium – ensuring the 2017 World Athletics Championships can be staged at the venue. Tottenham Hotspur tabled a rival bid to take over the stadium and planned to rip out the athletics track and invest money in a separate athletics venue.

An OPLC statement read: “After considering the report, the Olympic Park Legacy Company Board has concluded there are no grounds for re-considering their recommendation to select the consortium of West Ham United FC and the London Borough of Newham as the preferred bidder for the legacy use of the Olympic Stadium...the Mayor of London and Government, have also concluded that there are no grounds for re-considering their decision to select West Ham United FC and the London Borough of Newham as preferred bidder.”