Posted: July 4, 2005

Athletics: Record Support For IAAF World Youth Championships

Monte Carlo - The IAAF Maroc Telecom World Youth Championships, which take place in the historic city of Marrakesh, Morocco, from 13-17 July, is certain to have a record number of participating teams.

With the deadline for Provisional Entries now closed, 178 IAAF Member Federations have confirmed that they are sending athletes to the competition, which is open to athletes who are under 18 years of age. Only the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, has ever welcomed more IAAF Member Federations. The previous record at the World Youth Championships was 159 participating teams in Debrecen, Hungary in 2001.

“I am delighted to hear that we have broken our previous participation record for this event, and this shows that the "World Youth" has become increasingly popular amongst our Member Federations,” said IAAF President Lamine Diack. “Back in 1999, when the IAAF created the World Youth Championships, we did so on the basis that teenagers have so many choices now, not only when it comes to choosing a sport, but choosing other leisure activities, that our sport really needed to work to create future stars by giving them a world class competition opportunity. For this reason, the record figures for Marrakesh are extremely encouraging. We want our sport to be attractive to this age group, and for them to grow into senior champions in the future.”