Australia, Poland and France join London as bidders for 2015
Winston Thomas, the British-based secretary of World Masters Athletics, today announced: “Following the closing date for WMA Championship bids on the 1st September, WMA are pleased to announce the following bids. WMA Indoor Championships 2014: Valencia, Spain (and) Budapest, Hungary. WMA Outdoor Championships 2015: Perth, Western Australia; Bydgoszcz and Torun; Poland; London, Great Britain; and Lyon, France. Bids will be discussed by the WMA Council with visits to each city/town and the final decision made by the General Assembly in Sacramento 14th July 2011. I wish all the bidders success as we leave the choice to the GA.” Wow! Australia has a rep for great worlds, and who wouldn’t mind competing in east-central France?
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Forgot to mention: My dad’s family comes from Poland (although I don’t know of any relatives who survived the Holocaust). Anyone else use worlds to visit family roots?
Some interesting sites that are making bids. I don’t see how you can beat London if Seb is right and they are keeping the Olympic Track intact. Let’s hope Sacramento does a great job so that they will consider coming back to the states in the near future.
And what about Valencia in march! Great!
Chances of coming back to the states soon – slim to non – chances of going to Europe – France, Poland good, England and Australia – good – and personally – if I had a vote – and I do not – I would be torn between London and Perth. England has not had the games since 1999, Australia – 2001, France – had the indoors more recently – Poland – never – but Poland is part of Europe – and the games have been very Euro-centric. However the “management” of WMA is Eurocentric – soooo – but nice that they have choices. And by the way Lyon is famous for its gourmet restaurants and chefs.
Two choices for the indoors – both in Europe – again – but that is to be expected. My Spanish is almost non-existent -but my Hungarian – absolutely nada – and the European outdoors was just in Hungary I think – so …twill be interesting to see the proposals. Either one is far more exciting to me than going to Finland in March for the indoors in 2012. Valencia in the late winter or early spring – sounds lovely – but I have long wanted to go to see the cities of Buda and Pest.
All of the choices are a travel enthusiasts dream.
It seems as if Africa (Southern)has once again been left out in the cold – even after hosting a successful World Cup Soccer tournament !
Communication seems to be the name of the game, but considering the lack of it leading up to the first ever Africa Championships to be held in the most northern part of Africa (Algeria) it will not be surprising if it will only be a northern (French) Africa championships ! South Africa was the first African country to host the first ever Africa Championships in 1994, followed by our neighbours, Namibia in 1996. In 1998 no host came to the party, followed by Mauritius in 2000, Cameroons in 2002, Reunion in 2004 and Mauritius again in 2006, with no host in 2008. Cesare Beccalli used his influence to get the championships ‘up north’, but now its become a French affair. A notice appears on the WMA website giving a geographical and historical description of the town of Biskra (in French, but no entry form, programme of the championships. By trial and error and a google search, the invitation and entry form is found on an obscure part of the European Veterans Website (in English)!
Various attempts on the part of South African masters to obtain an English version of the programme and entry form directly from Africa Masters Athletics have been futile. At this late stage it appears the invitation dated 16 July was posted (but no-one is sure where) and the closing date is given as 10 September !
Short of sounding ‘left out’ South African masters could be considered the ‘founder member’ of African Masters Athletics when a former president, Hannes Booysen established this association. He was also at the forefront of the African delegation in 1991 to Helsinki, when S.A. won the bid to host the first World Masters Championships on African soil.
Please, WMA, and fellow-masters associations, don’t leave us out in the cold !
Pam, It’s surely not a case of leaving anyone “out in the cold”. No bid = no bid to consider.
I have to say (for obvious reasons) that London will be worth it. It will need to be a good Worlds in 2015, given how unpopular with many the 2013 venue remains.
Poland. WOW! I LIVE in Warsaw. You guys and gals didn’t know that. Warsaw, Missouri. Sticksville, USA. I COMPETED in that other Warsaw and those cats are track and field nuts. 104,000 turned out to watch a dual meet. 2 Poles vs 2 Americans in each event. Awesome. From the airport to our hotel, I counted 6 running tracks. We had the dual against the Hungarians, also. Man, do I have a tale to tell about our last night in Budapest. As they say in the ‘hollers’, “Youns have fun.” Smartty
I was born in Dulwich South East London and grew up in London for 24 years b4 coming to Philly in 87,providing West Ham United football{soccer}club don’t try to turn the London Olympic stadium into their new stadium and the powers that be award the 2015 WMA to London it’ll be a sort of homecoming for me
I agree with you Tom regarding bids for WMA champs ! However, I don’t think there is any excuse for what appears to be a lack of interest from WMA in the Africa Champs, considering the first invitation which went out in January included invitations to other associations to participate !
The WMA website lists few of the regional WMA meet websites. The WMA regional meet currently going on in Puerto Rico is not listed for example. It makes is difficult to nearly impossible for those outside a region to find out about other regional WMA meets except by accident – never mind sign up to participate. It makes it difficult for those living within a region to participate in their own regional meet. If the WMA is serious about regional meets it should take steps to help the various regional meets set up websites and advertise their meets. That they fail to do so to me is evidence that they do not care at all about anything other than the world meets. Any claim to the contrary is just a lot of hot air.
Whatever the merits of the other bidding cities, how could a bid to use the Olympic Venue from just 3 years before possibly not succeed unless down to some kind of internal poltics within the WMA. Can you imagine running/jumping/throwing on the Olympic Track in a world championship event?
I received feedback from African Masters Athletics, thank you very much Smail Boucetta, AMA General Secretary !
“Dear Immelman,
thank you for your mail,
the programme is going to be changed, maybe in 2 days, it will be ready, then you will get it as soon as possible, now you will find files attached
for your information, the deadline is changed, now it’s 25th September 2010 and not 10th september.
I remain for further information
best regards
read you soon
Smail Boucetta
General Secretary ofAMA ”
If anyone is interested in the Africa Championships taking place from 30 Oct – 1 Nov in Algiers, you can contact Smail direct on smayboucetta@yahoo.fr or email me and I will forward you the invitation, entry form, flight & accommo and programme (promised within 2 or 3 days).
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