The re-election as World Athletics President here today of Britain’s double Olympic 1500 metres gold medallist was a formality with 98.5 per cent of the vote as he was the only candidate standing.

Coe believes he has now been delivered a third and final mandate to continue reshaping a sport that has given him so many opportunities in life, with the focus now very much on what happens on the track and in the field.

As he admitted after sitting down following a long journey through the tea hall accepting congratulations from supporters and well-wishers, his first two terms were all about cleaning up a sport left in the gutter following decades of corruption. He inherited not only the mess bequeathed him by predecessor Lamine Diack, but also from Primo Nebiolo, the Italian who had presided over the sport like a Roman Emperor between 1981 and 1999.

"The first four years of my mandate was making sure the ship didn't sink," Coe admitted. "We were in a really tough situation."

Coe had only been in position a few weeks following his election victory in 2015 when the offices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, as the governing body was then known, in Monte Carlo were raided by French police investigating allegations that Diack had accepted bribes to cover up Russian doping cases.

For a short time, as the depth of corruption at the International Federation began to become public you wondered if Coe would survive the fallout of the scandal. Following his election victory in Beijing, he had described Diack as the "spiritual President" of the sport and thanked him "for many personal kindnesses both in public and private". It was probably one of the worst errors of judgement in Coe’s life.

Thankfully, he managed to steady himself and began to make some tough decisions to distance himself from Diack’s stinking regime.

The move to suspend Russia after evidence of state-sponsored doping was uncovered sent a strong message that this was a sport that was finally prepared to take on a country which had always believed that its size and wealth meant it was above the rules that applied to everyone else. Coe has continued to stand up to them over its invasion of Ukraine and made it clear they will not be allowed back into this sport until Red Army troops leave the country.

Coe’s position on Russia immediately put Coe on collision course with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, whose appeasement of Vladimir Putin and Moscow means he will go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of sport, that is set to come to an almighty head-on crash in two years.

Coe’s greatest legacy to the sport will be the formation of the Athletics Integrity Unit in 2017 to combat the sport’s age-old problem of doping, a cancer which has been eating away at its credibility for generations. Finally, there is confidence that athletics is serious about eradicating this disease. The sport will never be completely clear of doping, but at least it now looks like it is trying to do something to police it properly.

Coe has promoted gender equality, culminating in today’s elections where World Athletics achieved its target of having an equal number of men and women on its ruling Council four years ahead of schedule.

Now, he wants to turn his attention to actually making athletics a better product. It is undeniable that, even under Coe, the sport’s stature has slipped. This year’s World Athletics Championships, which are due to start in the Hungarian capital on Saturday (August 19), are shaping up to be a major event. Athletics will also be the hottest ticket at next year’s Olympics in Paris.

But, in between these major set-piece events, the sport largely disappears off the radar. Coverage is patchy at best and the Diamond League does little to spark excitement even among the keenest of athletics fans.

"It was Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over with the same result," Coe said in his victory address today. "It’s time to take a deep and objective look at our ourselves and assess our levels of insanity."

He did not offer up any plans but did warn, "The table is full", suggesting some radical ideas could be in the pipeline.

Football may be the planet’s biggest sport by some margin, but athletics is the only one which offers every country in the world the opportunity to enjoy success on a global level.

The biggest threat to Coe achieving his ambition of reshaping athletics is himself. He is sending increasingly strong signals that he is preparing to launch a campaign to stand for IOC President when Bach steps down in 2025, meaning he would leave World Athletics halfway through this last term.

Relations between Coe and Bach have deteriorated noticeably in recent years as the two have found themselves on different sides when it comes to Russia. Coe would almost certainly position himself – subtly, course - as the alternative to any candidate backed by Bach.

This far out, an IOC membership stacked full of Bach loyalists would seem hard to turn round. 

But Coe has proven before that he is often at his best when being written off. He was called a choker by critics after losing to Steve Ovett in the 800m at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow only to bounce back and win the 1500m. Four years later, his chances at Los Angeles 1984 were dismissed by the British media only for him to defy them again and win a second consecutive Olympic 1500m title.  

Coe was even more of an underdog for the vote on which city would host the 2012 Olympics, when, at one point, it was claimed that Paris had so much support sewn up, London should withdraw. We know that they didn’t, and a Coe-inspired London not only won its bid but staged one of the most successful Olympics in history.

The lesson is clear: you write off Sebastian Coe at your peril. Whatever the next four years hold for him, you can pretty much be sure he will make a success of it.