A number of competition decisions were made at the 215th Council meeting in Monaco

The introduction of a handicap system for the final races of the combined events and the elimination of the 10,000m for men at the 2020 World U20 Championships are among the rule and event changes announced following the 215th IAAF Council meeting in Monaco.

Both men and women will now compete over 3000m and 5000m at the 2020 event in Nairobi, while a mixed 4x400m relay will be added to the programme.

The Gunderson method is a handicap based on points difference converted into time and that will be used at the 2020 World U20 Championships for the decathlon 1500m and the heptathlon 800m so that the overall leaders start first and athletes finish in their final rank order (as used in modern pentathlon).

Other events decisions include the approval of the entry standards for next year's IAAF World Relays in Yokohama, plus confirmation that a request will be made to the International Olympic Committee for the inclusion of the women’s 50km race walk in the Tokyo programme.

Rules-related decisions include the approval of the new bidding rules, effective January 1, after a pilot process was conducted this year and resulted in the selection of Budapest as host of the 2023 World Championships. This process, whereby the IAAF Council selects an area to host the event and then a bid evaluation panel recommends a host city from interested candidates, will be adopted for World Athletics Championships and World Indoor Championships initially, and eventually for all World Athletics Series (WAS) events.

A proposal was made to amend Rule 163.4 (lane infringement) in the wake of the number of disqualifications during the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham this year, but the IAAF Council did not accept the recommendation, asking for further information. This means the rule remains unchanged for the 2019 indoor season.

An amendment was approved for Rule 170.10 (substitutes for relay races) to allow four additional athletes to be used once a relay team has started the competition (applicable at all WAS events and Olympic Games).

Rules 251 and 252 (mountain running and trail running) have also been amended and merged to create a consistent approach to rule enforcement at those events.

The proposal to post live world rankings on the IAAF website from January 1 was also approved, in order to allow athletes and member federations to see the rankings system in action during the 2019 season without it impacting on qualification for the World Championships in Doha. The Council will further discuss the introduction of the World Rankings as the primary qualification process for the 2020 Olympic Games at its next meeting in March.