IAAF Council Meeting Briefing - Osaka

The final gathering of the IAAF Council under its present composition of members whose mandate comes to its conclusion when new elections are held at the 46th IAAF Congress on Wednesday 22 August 2007, took place today in the New Otani Hotel, Osaka, Japan.

President Lamine Diack, in his opening address, paid glowing tribute to three Council Members who have decided to retire: Senior Vice-President Arne Ljungqvist (SWE), Vice-President Dapeng Lou (CHN), and Taizo Watanabe (JPN). All have announced their intention to continue supporting the IAAF and the cause of Athletics.

Final Report from Osaka 2007

The organisation and cooperation with the Local Organising Committee of the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka, Japan (25 Aug to 2 Sep 2007) has been excellent.

To maximize the number of spectators, especially mid-week, a last promotional push is underway, and to alleviate effects of the hot weather conditions for athletes and spectators, especially in distance events, mist stations will be introduced in the stadium and during the road events, with water stations positioned every 2km, during the second half of the course.

Transfer of Allegiance

Among a number of transfers of allegiance accepted by Council, notably 2000 Olympic Discus Throw bronze medallist Frantz Kruger’s (RSA) transfer to Finland was approved due to truly exceptional circumstances under Rule 5.2 (c) (ii). He is married to Finland’s 2002 European Championships Triple Jump bronze medallist Heli Koivula with whom he has a son Kaarlo Toivo Kruger who was born in 2005.

Age Manipulation/Discrepancy

Bahrain

Following a long investigation, the athlete Tareq Mubarak Salem Taher’s age was found to be incorrect and that consequently, he competed as a “Youth” athlete in 2005 when he was overage.

For this reason, his results from the 2005 World Youth Championships in Marrakech, (winner) the 2006 World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka (placed 19th) and the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing (second) were recently annulled by the IAAF -

http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=512/newsId=40170.html

President Diack has now demanded full cooperation from the Bahrain Athletics Association in order to determine who is responsible for the age manipulation and falsification of documents, and further disciplinary action may be taken.

The IAAF is taking the issue to CAS and considers that the $5000 fine and 7 days suspension applied by the Bahrain Athletics Association to the athlete was insufficient.

Advertising Regulations

The Council approved the Advertising Regulations. Of particular note: It has been agreed that from 2009 the National Federations will be allowed one, and only one sponsor on the competition vests/leotards of athletes at all WAS Competitions, with the exception of the World Championships in Athletics. With regards to the World Championships, National Sponsors will be allowed visibility on the athletes’ track suits (except on the podiums during awards ceremonies). In all cases such sponsors cannot be competitive with any of the IAAF Partners or Competition Sponsors and permission must be sought from the IAAF. The dimension and placement are to be determined.

Marketing – Osaka

The sponsorship sales’ programme for the 11th IAAF Championships in Athletics, Osaka 2007, is sold out with 8 international sponsors (TDK, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Epson, Mizuno, Nikon, Seiko and VTB). This is the first time this has occurred since the 1995 edition. Extensive TV coverage of the World Championships has also been secured in over 180 countries.

Salim Sdiri

Following the incident at the Rome IAAF Golden League meeting on 13 July, when long jumper Salim Sdiri (FRA) was impaled by a javelin, IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss requested that Technical Committee Chairman Jorge Salcedo (POR) consider the technical aspects surrounding this incident and suggest preventive measures for the future.

WADA Code

The IAAF’s submission regarding version 2.0 of the WADA Code has been sent to the WADA Code Project Review Team. On 13 August 2007 a second meeting with the Review Team and the IAAF took place in Monaco.  Council called upon the Congress to re-affirm its call for 4 year sanctions for serious first time violations. Senior Vice-President Ljungqvist reminded Council that Congress should be asked to give a mandate to IAAF Council to accept the revised Code as a basis for the fight against doping and to amend IAAF Rules, where appropriate, to bring them into compliance with the Code.

IAAF World Athletics Series events

Timetable Approvals

36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships – 30 March 2008, Edinburgh, Scotland

12:45 Junior Women (6km)
13:10  Junior Men (8 km)
13:40  Senior Women (8 km)
14:15  Senior Men (12 km)

23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup – 10/11 May 2008
Cheboxary, Russia

Saturday, 10 May 2008
10:00  Mass Fun Run
11:00 Junior Men 10km
12:00 Junior Women 10km
13:00 Senior Men 20km

Sunday, 11 May 2008
8:00 Senior Men 50km
13:00 Senior Women 20km

Date Approvals

13th IAAF World Junior Championships – 2010 – Moncton, Canada

Council approved the dates of 20 until 25 July 2010.

13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics – 2011 – Daegu, Korea

Council approved the dates of 27 August until 4 September.

14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics – 2013 – Moscow, Russia

The Council approved the dates of 10 August until 18 August.

Competition Calendar

2008 IAAF Outdoor Calendar(WAT and WAF)
(Situation as at 20 August 2007)

March
Sun 2  Melbourne AUS

April
Sat 26  Dakar SEN

 May
Sun 18  Belem BRA
Sat 24 (or Sat 31)  Hengelo NED

June
Sun 1   Berlin GER
Sun 8   Eugene USA
Wed 18  Athens GRE

July
Sat 5   Madrid ESP
Fri 11   Rome ITA
Fri 18   Paris FRA
Tue 22  Stockholm SWE
Tue 29  Monaco MON

August
Fri 29   Zurich SUI
Sun 31  Sheffield GBR

September
Tue 2   Lausanne SUI
Fri 5   Brussels BEL
Sun 7   Rieti ITA
Wed 10  Zagreb CRO
Sat 13 & Sun 14 WAF - Stuttgart (tbc)

Dates to be confirmed
Doha QAT
Osaka JPN
Ostrava CZE
New York USA
Oslo NOR
London GBR

INDOOR CALENDAR 2008

January
Sun 27  Moscow RUS

February
Fri 1   New York USA
Sat 2   Stuttgart GER
Sat 9   Valencia ESP
Sun 10  Karlsruhe GER
Thu 21  Stockholm SWE
Sun 24  Gent BEL

March
Sat 1   Athens
Fri 7   World Indoor Champs, Valencia, ESP
Sat 8   World Indoor Champs, Valencia, ESP
Sun 9   World Indoor Champs, Valencia, ESP

Date to be confirmed:
Birmingham GBR

Note: Due to the renovation of the facilities, the Meeting of Lievin (FRA) will not be organised in 2008.

Road Running Commission

Today, 15 or so Member Federations are relatively close to road running; others have some lesser involvement, but too many have no involvement whatsoever. In an effort to improve this situation and improve relations between the Member Federations and the road race community, the IAAF set up a specific Road Running Commission at the end of last year and appointed a full time member of staff to manage road running within the IAAF. The creation of a new IAAF circuit of road races, with two levels: “Gold” and “Silver” – is now being studied.

School and Youth Commission

Council emphasized the vital priority that needs to be given to increasing the awareness and participation in athletics at the youth age group, particularly in schools.

The Chairman of the School and Youth Commission reported that all the short-term objectives of the School and Youth Commission have now been achieved and that 50% of the medium-term objectives are in the process of being achieved. To date, the School & Youth Commission has been able to achieve the following tasks:

• Set up a development system for youth athletics within each IAAF Member Federation.
• Produce specific contents and documents for the educational part of Kids’
• Athletics.
• Launched the education system for instructors
• Increased the number of Kids’ Athletics Exhibitions (Areas + MF)
• Designed a ‘School & Youth’ webpage on iaaf.org
• Made it possible to download free of charge the Kids’ Athletics practical and educational guides on the IAAF website.

Recommendations

• Run Level I Lecturer courses in the IAAF Regional Development Centres (RDC) between now and December 2007 and ensure the follow-up of the participants.
• Produce a Kids & Youth Newsletter every 3 months.
• Involve RDC more in implementing Kids’ Athletics in schools.
• Information and data relative to the new lecturers will be entered on a Database + individual reports produced on a yearly basis.
• Look for specific sponsors for the School and Youth programmes
• Increase the number of participants in the IAAF World Athletics Day (WAD) and propose the team formula for 2008 – 2009 and leave it up to MFs to choose between Team System and Individual System for the WAD.
• Do not allow any athlete under 16 to participate in the WYC.

IAAF