122 Members signup for IAAF World Athletics Day

Monaco – May 03, 2013: 122 IAAF Member Federations have entered to take part in the 2013 edition of the IAAF World Athletics Day.

Now in its 18th year, the IAAF World Athletics Day, the sport’s annual worldwide festival of youth, is one of the busiest programmes of competitions in the Athletics calendar.

The IAAF World Athletics Day when it began in 1996 was exclusively planned for youngsters who were members of clubs affiliated to IAAF Member Federations but in recent years the scope of the project has broadened to include the participation of school children in team competitions. With the addition of this category, the IAAF World Athletics Day has become a complete and an important event which annually promotes our sport around the world.

The goal of the IAAF World Athletics Day is to firmly establish an important link between the youth, our sport, and environmental conservation.

The IAAF World Athletics Day 2013 takes place in May, preferably the weekend of Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 May.

Upon the recommendation of the IAAF Sustainable Development Commission, Member Federations have been strongly urged to implement the IAAF Green Project in association with the IAAF World Athletics Day, in order to help build the awareness of the youth on issues concerning sustainable development and environment protection.

Member Federations are being encouraged to organise a number of activities including tree plantings, inviting their athletes to take part in the protection of the environment at training and competition sites, and seeking the cooperation of local organisations specialised in ecological matters to assist in promoting sport and the environment.

The IAAF World Athletics Day 2013 involves Youth Age Group children from Clubs who were born in 1996-1997 (16-17 years old).

In accordance with the goal of the IAAF Athletics’ World Plan to make Athletics the number one sport in Schools, the World Athletics Day is also being organised in close cooperation with the relevant national ministry which is in charge of School sport in each country. The age group for these School team activities is Boys and Girls born in 1998-1999-2000 (13-15 years old), involving 6 children per side.

The IAAF will be sending parcels of promotional items (T-Shirts, pins, posters, diplomas) to each Member Federation who had announced their participation by the deadline (1 March).

All those Member Federations involved have also been encouraged to seize the opportunity to organise an IAAF Kids’ Athletics exhibition in clubs and/or schools for 7-12 year olds. —- IAAF