Working logo for Canada's National Track League (© Athletics Canada)
25 May 2011As of this summer, Canada will have a National League set to provide Canadian athletes with competitive opportunities that will lead them to enhance their participation in the lead up to London Olympics and through to Rio 2016.
Athletics Canada (AC) is set to launch an innovative national five-meet series – the National Track League (NTL) – starting this summer. It is expected to run on a five-year plan through London 2012 until Rio Olympics in 2016.
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The cities comprised in NTL’s competition calendar are Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Halifax and Toronto. In designing a national series such as the NTL, AC intends to provide high-end competitive opportunities for Canadian athletes without elevated travel costs for Canadian participants. In NTL competitions, lanes will be reserved for Canadians, and travel and accommodation costs will also be covered by the League.
In addition to prize money for overall performance as well as for each individual meet, athletes will also be able to add up points for a federal funding carding system. Furthermore, athletes may also qualify for the Canadian team that will compete at the IAAF World Championships if they achieve the IAAF ‘A’ standard during the series.
The new series is also expected to become a platform for AC to recruit additional sponsors and therefore provide more tangible value to their commercial partners. Moreover, such a series brings upon event hosting benefits expanding organiser and volunteer bases in all participating cities. Additionally, cities will have the opportunity to showcase their abilities of staging high-level Athletics events and therefore enhance their profile for future sports endeavours.
The NTL is a well-conceived plan that, in different levels, is woven into the development plan for Athletics in Canada. Ultimately, through the NTL, Athletics Canada aligns itself and its programmes with the Spirit of the Athletics’ World Plan and invests in building stronger foundations to make Athletics the number one participatory sport in the country.
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