VM 100 km afholdes ikke i 2013

IAU må for 3. gang melde ud, at VM 100 km er aflyst, men denne gang meddeles det også, at VM slet ikke afholdes i 2013. Det er nok et klogt træk, hvis man ikke vil miste sin troværdighed totalt!

Cancellation of the 2013 100km World Championships

Dear athletes,

 

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the cancellation of this year’s 100 km World Championship. In the first place we need to apologize for this late decision and all the inconveniences occurred.

 

We are aware of the fact that the lack of clarity and the long absence of a decision has affected your training and the planning of the second half of the season.

It looks as if this year is an “annus horribilis” for our 100 km World Championship. After the cancellation of the Korean project on Jeju Island we started to look for alternatives and thought we did find the solution in South Africa. Unfortunately, unexpected internal problems in the national athletic federation obstructed the finalization of this plan.

 

Then the aim was put on the Middle East where we have a commitment from an organizer to host the championship in Dubai in December. Technically we have almost everything in place but we are still waiting for the final decision of the Sheikh to underwrite the budget and this can last for another couple of weeks.  All the indications are pointing in the positive way but we really feel that it is time to take a stand. It is about time for our athletes/delegations/federations to prepare their journey and as long we don’t have 100% guarantee we can’t ask anyone to undertake any action.

 

Personally I have to admit that this is really a sad story.  Never before so much energy has been put into the preparations of the hosting of a major IAU competition and after all we can only admit that everything has been in vain. Hence again our sincere apologies for this shortcoming. We hope, and will do our utmost, to make things up next year with the 100 km World Championship in Daugavpils / Latvia for the next edition of the IAU 100 km World Championship !

 

Kind regards,

 

Dirk Strumane
IAU President