It was, as Stephanie Hightower, President of USA Track and Field put it, a "win-win for everyone".

Niels De Vos, chief executive of British Athletics, denied Birmingham knew there was a second opportunity on the table, but added that, in retrospect, it was the "best possible" outcome for both British and world athletics.

Hightower said she was "thrilled to have this opportunity to finally get the world back to the US, back to where we think we have the number one track and field team in the world."

The 2016 World Indoors will be the first major senior international athletics championship to be hosted by the United States since the 1992 World Cross Country Championships in Boston.

Max Siegel, chief executive of USA Track and Field spoke of the opportunity the successful bid would play in helping rebuild athletics within the United States, pointing out Eugene, Oregon, was already due to stage the 2014 World Junior Championships.

"It is an honour to have been given this latest event," he said.

"We are making it a high priority to grow the sport domestically and take our place in the international family."

Asked if he had been aware of the possibility of Birmingham getting the 2018 Championships in default of those of 2016, De Vos replied: "We didn't know.

"We came to win a World Championships and we didn't expect this outcome, but it's the best possible outcome for us because we now have four World Championships in four years.

"We have the World Mountain Running in 2015, we've got the World Half Marathon in 2016, we have the World Championships in 2017 and now we have the World Indoor Championships in 2018.

"That gives a real momentum to our sport on the back of a fantastically successful [London 2012] Olympics and hopefully a fantastically successful [Glasgow] Commonwealth Games in 2014.

"So when I got up this morning I wasn't thinking about 2018, but in retrospect it was the best possible outcome for us.

"And I also think it was the best possible outcome for the IAAF for the reasons of taking the event to the States."

Swedish high jumper Kasja Bergvist celebrates during the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham's National Indoor Arena, which will host the event again in 2018 @Getty Images

US athlete Ashton Eaton, the world decathlon champion, commented on Portland's victory: "This is great for the sport.

"The question was posed to us, 'The IAAF doesn't have a good enough presence in the United States.'

"Well, now we have the championships, and I'm very excited about it."

Hicham El Guerrouj, who spent three years living in Portland, and whose youngest daughter was born there, described the award as "a new horizon" for the sport.

Vin Lananna, former coach who is now President of Track Town USA, the organisation based in Oregon which put on the last two US national trials, said the event would take place from March 18 until 20 - avoiding a clash with the NCAA Championships by a week - in the Oregon Convention Centre.

Portland Timbers soccer team before a home game this year - there are hopes that the award of the World Indoors to Portland in 2016 will spark off similar excitement about track and field @Getty Images

He described it as a "blank canvas" which was five minutes away from all Portland's downtown hotels and had excellent public transport links.

"It is a blank, gigantic space and we will build a track for it. It will be a fantastic venue, with a seating capacity of more than 8,400."

He added that the track would be portable, and might be used in other venues around the United States.

"I liken to getting these Championships to getting the Portland Timbers soccer team started," he said.

"It was seen as something that couldn't really take place.

"And now you have a rabid crowd, a crazy atmosphere.

"And we hope to do the same for track and field and to spread that throughout the United States."

Ed Warner, British Athletics chairman, who had spoken earlier on the confirmation of the 2016 World Half Marathon Championships for Cardiff, said: "I feel like Christmas has come early for British Athletics today."

He added that, in preparing the bid for the World Indoor Championships, "The one competition we feared was from the United States.

"Because it was absolutely clear to me that our sport needed to expand States-side.

"This is a sport that needs to nurture its roots in the United States.

"At the end of the 2003 World Indoors the IAAF President Lamine Diack commented that they were the 'best ever' edition, and I'm absolutely sure that the 2018 edition of the World Indoors will be the best ever in an amazing indoor venue."

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