Press release

Excitement is fast building up in Africa as Nairobi prepares to host a round of the inaugural World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Series on 26 September.

When 2019 World Championships bronze medallist Ese Brume flew into Nigeria in March, it was part of a straightforward plan: to compete at the National Sports Festival – Nigeria’s biggest multi-sport competition - and then return to Cyprus where she has been based since 2016 as an undergraduate at Eastern Mediterranean University.

World discus champion Daniel Stahl’s first-round throw of 68.10m at the Folksam Grand Prix withstood a sustained challenge from fellow Swede Simon Pettersson at the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Karlstad on Wednesday (8).

While half of the world is starting to ease their way out of lockdown, most countries in Africa are still awaiting the green light from their governments to resume normal day-to-day activities. For thousands of athletes on the continent, that means being able to return to training facilities and competitions.

When Allyson Felix and Shaunae Miller-Uibo started plotting out their 2020 season at the end of last year, they probably anticipated lining up against one another at roughly this time of year.

Some of the biggest names in Czech athletics are looking forward to competing at the Golden Spike in Ostrava on 8 September when the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting will host its 59th edition.

World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Willi Holdorf, the 1964 Olympic decathlon champion, died at his home in Achterwehr, Germany, on Sunday (5) after a long illness. Holdorf was 80.

Johannes Vetter and Andreas Hofmann of Germany will join Olympic javelin champion Thomas Rohler in a high-powered javelin throw field at the Paavo Nurmi Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Turku, Finland, on 11 August.

We conclude our Area in Focus series look at Europe with a selection of images which show how athletes from the area have dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.

In one of the highest quality weekends of the 2020 outdoor season so far, several world and Olympic medallists were in action across Europe, North America and Asia.

We continue our Area in Focus series with an interview with European Athletics interim President Dobromir Karamarinov, who spoke with World Athletics a few hours after attending the funeral of EA President Svein Arne Hansen, which took place near Oslo on 1 July.

The hardest part is behind them – or so they hope. For Europe’s top athletes, the slow emergence from lockdown in recent times has, at long last, cast a hopeful ray of light on the horizon.