Official bids submitted for hosting of 2016 IAAF events
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has received official bids from five member federations looking to host either the IAAF World U20 Championships or the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships in 2016.
An accelerated bidding process was opened for the two events following the full suspension of the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) as an IAAF member last month. Next year’s World U20 Championships had originally been due to take place in Kazan, while the World Race Walking Team Championships had been set for Cheboksary.
Seven member federations initially submitted letters of interest and of those, five have made official bids. Poland (Bydgoszcz) has bid to host the World U20 Championships, while Ecuador (Guayaquil), Italy (Rome), Mexico (Monterrey) and Ukraine (Kiev) are the four member federations interested in hosting the World Race Walking Team Championships.
Australia and India had submitted letters of interest for the World U20 Championships but did not follow that up with an official bid.
On announcing the decision to withdraw their expression of interest to host the World U20 Championships, Athletics Australia's chief executive officer Phil Jones had said: "After much deliberation and consultation with our partners at Tourism Western Australia, we regrettably agreed to withdraw our candidacy to bid for hosting rights for the IAAF World Junior Championships.
"This decision has not been taken lightly, but reflects the challenges faced with regards to the heavily condensed timeframe and the significant new, support infrastructure required to augment the Western Australia Athletics Stadium within a matter of months."
The IAAF will now review the applications and an electronic vote among the IAAF Council will take place on January 7 to decide the two host venues, after which the successful candidate cities will be announced.
