Press release

When the global coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of this year's Wanda Diamond League final, organisers of Zurich's Weltklasse meeting decided that Covid-19 wouldn't entirely wipe their competition from the European summer calendar. With travel restrictions likely to keep athletes from their event, Zurich decided to go to the athletes. Thus, the Inspiration Games set for 9 July, which will bring together 30 world-class athletes competing in eight disciplines across seven venues.

World Athletics can confirm that it has not received the payments due from the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) on 1 July, nor any information on when the monies may be paid, despite reminders and correspondence with the Federation.

“When I was a kid,” Adam Sebastian Helcelet recalls, “Czech Republic had the greatest decathletes in the world. I watched them with my father. He said ‘You are coordinated. You can feel your body, and I guess that you’re going to be a big guy. You should try it.’”

Four-time world hammer champion Pawel Fajdek, double world pole vault medallist Piotr Lisek and European 400m champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic are just some of the Polish stars set to compete at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Silesia on 6 September.

Speaking at the funeral of Svein Arne Hansen, who died on 20 June, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe described the European Athletics President as “a unique spirit, a steadfast friend and a man with an unflinching and instinctive belief in right and wrong”.

World Athletics has today published its four-year Strategic Plan, designed to harness the power and accessibility of athletics to drive growth in the sport and create a healthier and fitter world.

Here we continue to share stories and updates about how the athletics world is adjusting to and coping with the spread of Covid-19.

New Zealand’s 1976 Olympic 1500m champion Sir John Walker has donated the national team warm-up suit which he wore at the 1986 Commonwealth Games to the World Athletics Heritage Collection.

Organisers of the Herculis EBS Meeting have confirmed the first major stars set to compete at the Wanda Diamond League fixture in Monaco on 14 August.

Armand Duplantis’s world pole vault record of 6.17m, Yulimar Rojas’s world indoor triple jump record of 15.43m and Joshua Cheptegei's 12:51 5km world record have been ratified.

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

World Athletics and parkrun Global Limited are delighted to announce a new partnership by which they will combine their resources to grow the sport of athletics and deliver good health and fitness outcomes for communities around the world.