Highlights of IAAF Council Meeting
By IAAF
Posted Thursday, 16 November, 2006
Monte-Carlo - Monday 13 November, the morning after the crowning of the World Athlete of the Year at the prestigious annual World Athletics Gala, IAAF President Lamine Diack and his Council colleagues were back at work for a 9 hour session at the Hotel Fairmont in Monaco.
IAAF suspends the Algerian federation
Council heard a report on the situation in Algeria, where the President of the federation and the entire executive committee has been suspended by Algeria’s Minister of sports for a period of 4 years. IAAF Council agreed that the decision of the minister to put in place an interim committee was totally unacceptable and has taken the rare step to suspend the Algerian Athletics Federation from the IAAF, with immediate effect. This decision means that Algerian athletes will not be able to compete in international competitions. President Diack said that “the IAAF will strongly support the independence of democratically elected federations against all form of government interference.”
Age manipulation
Council continued to study the cases of age manipulation of three former Kenyan athletes who competed for Bahrain at the 2005 IAAF World Youth Championships. Council noted that, following carefully study of all the available evidence it was agreed that Belai Mansour Ali, formerly known as John Yego – is innocent of all charges as his date of birth has been proved to be correct.
However, the cases of the other athletes, Taher Tarah Mubaraq (Dennis Kipkurui) and Khamis Adam (Hosea Kosgei) are still being investigated. Further information is being sought from the Bahrain federation and the athletes, before a final decision can be made.
19 Member Federations competed at every IAAF event in 2006
IAAF Council commended the following 19 IAAF federations for having competed at ALL IAAF World Athletics competitions in 2006….
Belarus
Brazil
Dominican Republic
Ethiopia
France
Great Britain
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Poland
Qatar
Romania
Russia
South Africa
Spain
USA
Change to date of women’s marathon at 2008 Olympic Games
Council accepted a request from the IOC to change the date of the women’s marathon race from Friday 15 August 2008 to Sunday 17 August. The proposed start time is 07:30 in the morning.
2007 IAAF World Road Running Championships
Council approved the timetable of the next edition of the World Road Running Championships which will take place in Udine, Italy on 14 October 2007 over the distance of Half Marathon.
08:30 Mass Race
10:00 Opening Ceremony
10:30 Women’s Race
12:15 Men’s Race
2011 and 2013 World Championships’ bidding cities
Council heard that the deadline for receipt of written documents from those Member federations who have applied to host the 2011 and 2013 editions of the IAAF World Championships is 1 December. Following that date, the applications will be carefully studied with the goal of having a maximum of five contenders for the two championships, with the final decision to be taken at the next IAAF Council Meeting in Mombasa, Kenya, in March 2007.
IAAF Budget 2007
The IAAF Treasurer Jean Poczubut presented a proposed Budget for 2007 which was approved by the Council.
More than 44% of IAAF expenditure in 2007 will be devoted to prize money for athletes, totalling almost $12 million, with the total budget agreed at approximately $64 million.
IAAF Marketing budget has been tripled, thanks to number of new initiatives, including research and branding. $450,000 will also be devoted to Kids Athletics and other projects aimed at attracting young people to the sport.
It was agreed that the IAAF’s investment in development of the sport would be increased to a record total of $14 million, which represents more than 21% of the IAAF’s total budget.
The IAAF Anti-Doping budget in 2007 will be increased to a total of 2.8 million, with the increase devoted to educational initiatives.
2008 World XC Champs and 2009 World Youth Champs venues decided
Following excellent presentations, Council agreed that the 2008 World Cross Country Championships will be staged in Edinburgh, UK on 30 March 2008. The Scottish capital hosted a memorable edition of the European Cross Country in 2003, and another Scottish city Glasgow held the World Cross Country in 1978. It was also agreed that the 2009 edition of the World Youth Championships will be held in Bressanone, Italy, 8-12 July. This picturesque city is set in the German speaking area of Südtirol, and will offer the world’s best young athletes an environment of outstanding natural beauty.
Athletes support anti-doping initiatives
Alberto Juantorena, in his report of the Athletes’ Commission, emphasized the total support of the members to the IAAF’s war against doping. He underlined the athletes’ commitment to a “zero tolerance” approach to doping and strongly support the IAAF’s efforts to lobby WADA to agree a 4 year sanction for serious doping offences when the WADA Code is updated. Council was also asked to consider ways to create a form of “Clean Athletes Club” which would encourage the majority of athletes to actively promote anti-doping education measures. The Commission will work very closely with the Medical and Anti-Doping Commission to ensure that the athletes are closely involved with the further development of anti-doping policies and practices.
Council agreed that the Athletes Commission should continue to elect a proportion of their membership. The next elections will be held in Osaka, next summer at the time of the World Championships in Athletics.
Anti-Doping test figures (as at 23 October 2006)
Total number of In-competition tests: 1222 (inc. 470 epo)
Total number of Out-of-competition tests: 1085 (inc. 726 epo), of which 932 were conducted by IDTM on behalf of IAAF, and the other 154 by WADA.
Of the total of all these tests 39 cases have been concluded as doping violations.
For 2007, the IAAF is planning an Out-of-competition programme of 2200 to 2300 tests, with an In-Competition programme of between 1300 and 1400 tests. As part of its ongoing blood data collection, the IAAF will collect 900-1000 samples.
Council also agreed that a special seminar called the IAAF Nutrition Consensus Conference will be organized in the spring of 2007 for a limited number of scientific experts in this field.
IAAF World Athletics Tour
The Helsinki GP meeting which was part of the World Athletics Tour in 2006 has been cancelled.
Council heard that three other one-day meetings – Carson (USA), New York (USA), Rethymno (GRE) – have asked to join the World Athletics Tour. It was agreed that further information regarding their applications would be considered by the IAAF Advisory Board (which is made up of the IAAF President, Vice-Presidents, and Honorary Treasurer) and a decision will be made before the end of 2006.
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