WAD 2007 Poster (© c)
MonteCarloA fully paid holiday of a lifetime to Japan, to see the planet’s finest athletes in action on the World Championship stage, is the motivational prize which is on offer to those children lucky enough to be picked from a draw of winning national youth athletes submitted by IAAF Member Federations that are participating in this weekend’s 2007 IAAF World Athletics Day.
The IAAF’s annual worldwide festival of youth, which was inaugurated in 1996 remains as popular as ever, with 157 of the 212 IAAF Member Federations taking part on Saturday and Sunday, 12 & 13 May 2007.
As in the past, there will be a draw of national winners for the Youth Age Group, which will be extended to the “Minimes” School Children. The ‘lucky winners’ will be invited to the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Osaka, Japan (25 August-2 September 2007), with their travel and full board accommodation costs covered by the IAAF.
Yet it is not just these selected athletes who gain from the experience, as thousands of gifts such as T-Shirts, posters and pins are distributed to each competing Member Federation, with an IAAF World Athletics Day Diploma presented to all participants, helping to encourage enthusiasm for Athletics, the world’s most international sport.
For the second year in accordance with the goal of the IAAF Athletics’ World Plan to make Athletics the number one sport in schools, the IAAF World Athletics Day is being organised in close cooperation with the relevant national ministry which is in charge of School Sport in each country. The result of this initiative has again been startlingly successful, with 147 of those IAAF Member Federations signing up for the general World Athletics Day also committing themselves to the School element of the project.
This year’s IAAF World Athletics Day will comprise events for boys and girls born in 1990 and 1991, whereas the one for School Children will be for all pupils belonging to the category “Minimes” (born in 1992 and 1993).
IAAF