Admin l Thursday, December 01, 2016
TAICANG, China – The Council of the International Associations of Athletes Federation(IAAF) has awarded the 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships to Taicang, China.
The original hosts of the 2018 edition of these championships was Cheboksary, Russia, a decision which was made by Council in November 2013.
However as the Russian athletics federation is currently suspended from IAAF membership for doping, Council decided at their last meeting during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to reallocate the championships.
Following the opening of the bidding process on 2 September, the IAAF received expressions of interest from six cities (Guyaquil, ECU; Hammamet, TUN; Kiev, UKR; Monterrey, MEX; Taicang, CHN; and Tokyo, JPN) but only Taicang submitted a formal bid by the deadline of 15 November.
Taicang, which is situated in Jiangsu province, was host to the 2014 edition of these championships (then called the IAAF World Race Walking Cup) and is the Chinese leg of annual IAAF World Race Walking Challenge.
Following a presentation by a delegation from Taicang and the Chinese Athletics Association headed by Han Biao, Vice-Mayor of Taicang Municipal People’s Government and IAAF Council Member Zhaocai Du, Council unanimously awarded Taicang the 2018 edition.
“The Chinese Athletics Federation are extremely experienced organisers of IAAF World Athletics Series events, most recently delivering the stunning 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing,” commented Sebastian Coe.
“Taicang’s bid and today’s presentation was of the highest technical level. China is one of the most successful race walking nations and we can expect large crowds of spectators in 2018, just as there were in 2014.”
“Of course it’s a great honour for us to host the 2018 IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships,” commented Zhaocai Du. “We’re proud to see this competition come back to our country. In fact, race walking is very popular in China and in Taicang. We host the Race Walking challenge every year and Taicang do a great job to promote race walking not only at the elite level but also as a fitness activity. We’re looking forward to welcoming you back in our home in 2018 and we are preparing for the delivery of a successful championships.”
Council approved the criteria for women’s 50km race walk to become an official world record event bringing athletics one step closer to complete gender equality across all its disciplines.
From 1 January 2017, the IAAF will accept the first performances equal to or less than 4:30:00 as having fulfilled all conditions for a world record* as the inaugural women’s 50km race walk world record.
