IPC Athletics Plans Extensive Future

International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Sport Technical Committee (STC) met this past weekend from 25-26 September in Bonn 29 Sep 2009 By IPC

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Sport Technical Committee (STC) met this past weekend from 25-26 September in Bonn, Germany, planning for several upcoming competitions and to further the work initiated after the IPC Athletics Summit earlier in the year.

One of the topics of discussion was the approach for seeking bids from Host Cities for the World Championships in 2013 and 2015. In 2017, the aim would be to stage IPC Athletics World Championships in the same year as the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships.

The Committee was at the IPC Headquarters both days, with attendees including IPC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Xavier Gonzalez, IPC Athletics Sport Manager Helen Murphy and Executive Director Sport and International Federations Relations David Grevemberg. Travelling to Bonn, STC Committee attendees included Jason Hellwig, Craig Carscadden, Jack Todd and Tarek Souei. During the meeting, Mr. Souei was also confirmed as Technical Delegate for the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

By 31 October 2009, the IPC Athletics STC confirmed that the IPC Athletics Rule Book would be published, adopting in it the new IAAF starting rule which will come into force on 1 November 2009. It also was confirmed that the IPC would maintain World Records for indoor competitions and expand World Best records of road races for wheelchair and ambulant athletes.

IPC Athletics Sport Manager Helen Murphy said that the exchange of information was the most successful meeting since the IPC Athletics Summit earlier this year, with areas of discussion in governance, general and competition management, development, education and training, as well as marketing and communications.

“The IPC Athletics STC together with those contributing to different projects have been working hard since the summit in February and I am confident that we are making significant progress,” Ms. Murphy said.

Additionally, the STC endorsed the proposal from the working group in relation to the medal events programme at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, which will be published on 30 September 2009.

Regarding age group competitions, the STC recommended continued exploration on how IPC Athletics could deliver disability age group competitions for juniors, youths and U16 athletes.

For more information about IPC Athletics, please visit http://ipc-athletics.paralympic.org.