• IOC presidential candidate ‘has no idea’ about his chances
• Lord Coe thought to be neck-and-neck with Samaranch Jr

No sooner had the crucial presentations for the biggest job in sport ended than the guessing games began. Sebastian Coe mixed flattery with oratory over the course of his 15-minute pitch for the job of International Olympic Committee president, before promising the IOC’s 110 members he would lead them into a glorious new era. But then came the caveat.

It came when Lord Coe was asked how he believed he stood in a contest that some observers increasingly believe is a direct battle between him and the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr.

Briton among the seven candidates gathered in Lausanne for an election so secretive and strange it would make a Vatican cardinal wince

It sounds like a brain stumper from a particularly fiendish pub quiz. Which major 2025 election is being fought over by several presidents, a vice-president, a prince, a lord, and a politician from Zimbabwe? And, for good measure, could be won for the first time by someone from Britain?

The answer can be found in Lausanne, where the seven candidates hoping to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have gathered to make their one and only direct pitch – via a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation – for the biggest job in global sport.