BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, August 17-18 — The WA Congress that preceded the World Championships achieved one of Seb Coe’s major goals: for the first time, the 26-member WA Council will be balanced by sex, 4 years ahead of the target date.
Running unopposed, Coe was elected to his final term as president with 192 votes (and 3 abstentions). He will be joined at the top level of federation leadership by Chile’s Ximena Restrepo as Senior VP. Restrepo won the ’91 NCAA 400 title while at Nebraska and in ’92 won Olympic bronze for her native Colombia.
The other 3 VPs are Raúl Chapado (Spain), Adille Sumariwalla (India) and Jackson Tuwei (Kenya). The final piece of the equity requirement will come at the ’27 Congress, where 2 VPs of each sex will be mandated.
The equity task was made easier by the departure of Sergey Bubka after 22 years. The vault legend, a friend of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has come under criticism for not condemning the Russian invasion of his country. He was also forced to leave behind his presidency of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee; it was revealed that his business is involved in gasoline distribution in Russian-occupied areas.
Coe, meanwhile, stuck strongly by his opposition to seeing Russians and their Belarusian allies in the Paris Olympics. Saying,“I am not a neutral,” he followed up with, “Athletics will not be on the wrong side of history.
“We made a judgment as a Council last year that was well-nigh unanimous. We made that decision within days of the illegal invasion of a sovereign state, and we did it for reasons of integrity — this wasn’t about passports or politics. You just simply had a nation that could no longer compete and was having its infrastructure destroyed and I couldn’t in conscience offer a panoply of service and status to athletes from countries that were bringing that about.”
While it has been widely speculated that Coe is angling to become the head of the IOC after Thomas Bach’s term expires in ’25, he refused to offer confirmation, saying, “I haven’t ruled it in, and I certainly haven’t ruled it out.” On the World Championships’s final day, Bach made an appearance to address the newly seated Council’s first meeting.
Finally, Coe offered some regrets about how last year’s Worlds went in Eugene. He told a press conference, “Moving into the United States — that’s a challenge. We know it’s a challenge. We took that on a few years ago coming from some distance back. The Continental Tour events, we didn’t have any and now we have got some good ones and they’re developing. But it’s a congested market — everybody wants to be there. That’s why we agreed to hold the World Championships in Eugene last year.
“Eugene wasn’t ideal. It certainly posed us some challenges around broadcast numbers in Europe. We hemorrhaged quite a few millions of broadcasting hours.”
In more mundane matters at the Congress:
WA reported a $17.1 million operating loss for ’22, which was put down to the fact that the organization staged four WA Series events last year and some of them operate at a loss. Revenue declined by $26.9 million, but that was because ’22 didn’t see the Olympic disbursement that came the previous year. Excluding that, said COO Vineesh Kochhar, revenue actually increased…
The Athletes’ Commission has some new blood, as American long jumper Jasmine Todd, British sprinter Adam Gemili and Spanish walker Diego García joined the group. French vaulter Renaud Lavillenie remained as chair…
New competition rules were put in place in time for Budapest, including the elimination of time qualifying in the middle-distance races. Runners will henceforth advance on place only in those events…
Also, lanes vacant because of injuries, disqualification or late withdrawals will be filled with the next potential qualifier, time permitting. (Editor E. Garry Hill lobbied strongly for this change in his column of August ’22.)…
The lane draw process following round 1 has been shifted, in part redefining what the preferred lanes are…
Athletes who false start by a narrow margin will be allowed to run under protest while their situation is being sorted by officials…
A licensing system for athletes’ representatives has been put in place that will reflect eligibility criteria and help safeguard athletes from various abuses. In addition, two years has been set as the maximum term for an athlete’s initial contract with a representative, though it may be extended a year at a time after that.
Host cities have been selected for the next two World Road Running Championships, with San Diego set for ’25 and Copenhagen ’26…
For the World U20 Championships, previously withdrawn Lima, Peru, is back in the picture for ’24 now that civil strife there has calmed. The ’26 version of the Junior meet will come to Eugene.