Some of the decisions are of essentially political character. For instance,
The Council also accepted the Russia Taskforce’s recommendation not to reinstate RusAF until the following two conditions have been met in full: confirmation that the Athletics Integrity Unit has been given data and access to the samples that it needs to determine which of the Russian athletes in the Laboratory Information Management System database have a case to answer for breach of the IAAF anti-doping rule and that RusAF pays all the costs incurred in the work of the taskforce.
So, again in 2019, we are going to have the authorised russian athletes compete as stateless persons. (I prefer the french word "apatride" instead of "stateless": I find it more forceful).
The good news is that Budapest has been selected as the host city for the 2023 World Athletics Championships. A key component of the bid of Budapest was the construction of a new stadium. Given the experience of Hungary in athletics one can be really optimistic about the 2023 World's.
On more technical points
The qualifying standards for next year's World Championships in Doha were approved. Essentially, target numbers were introduced for road events and the number of teams qualified from the IAAF World Relays was increased from 8 to 10 in the 4x100 m and 4x400 m relays and to 12 for the 4x400 m mixed relay.
An amendment was approved concerning the substitutes for relay races. Under the new rule it will be allowed for four additional athletes to be used once a relay team has started the competition. Initially the number of substitutes was two. The new rule means that the team running in the final may be totally different from the one running in the qualifiers.
And now moving to progressively worse and worse decisions
The IAAF will submit a request to the IOC for the inclusion of the women’s 50km race walk in the Tokyo programme, even though the deadline for 2020 Olympic programme changes has passed. As you know I consider the whole race-walking discipline an institutionalised cheating: the walkers are running most of the time. So, every decision which aims at amplifying the scope of race-walking is a bad one to my eyes.
A proposal was made to amend the lane infringement rule, in the wake of the number of disqualifications during the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham this year. Unfortunately the Council did not accept the recommendation, asking for further information.
Last year's 400 m have been marred by excessively harsh disqualifications.
And, since many the Birmingham judges will be present also this year, this means that we may have another massacre at the Glasgow European indoors. Apparently the IAAF is waiting for another bout of the same before taking a courageous decision.
For me the situation is clear: if the athlete does not gain any material advantage and does not obstruct any other athlete by stepping outside his lane, he should not be disqualified. An experienced judge can very well decide if the lane infringement provided any advantage to the athlete.
There were also changes to the competition programme of the World U20, 2020, Championships, to be held in Nairobi. The mixed 4x400m relay is now part of the program (a decision I fully approve). On the other hand 10000 m for men is eliminated from the program (and why, in the first place, women were discriminated?). The decision is that now men and women will compete over 3000 m and 5000 m. I don't understand. Is there such a big difference between 3000 and 5000 m? To my eyes the right choice of events if 5000 and 10000 m, period. If the IAAF wishes to eliminate the 10000 m, this is perfectly OK. But adding the 3000 m for men is absurd: they should have eliminated it from the women's program as well.
And to top it off
It was decided to introduce the Gunderson (sic) method for the final event of combined events. The Gundersen method consists in introducing an interval start with a handicap based on points difference converted into time. This converts the last race in a pursuit one, the aim being that the athletes finish in their final rank order. The IAAF Council decision draws their inspiration from the modern pentathlon! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read this. The noblest sports discipline drawing inspiration from a marginal, superannuated sport that should have been eliminated from the Olympics decades ago! But let's put this aside and look at the decision itself. The only reason the IAAF is doing this is for ignoramuses watching the event on tv to be able to tell who is the winner. But with the technical means available today we can have the classification just a second or two after the athletes have crossed the line. This should have been enough for anybody who is even marginally interested in athletics. I still recall A. Eaton's superhuman effort, during his 9045 points world record in Beijing's 2015 World's, racing behind L. Bourrada's steady rhythm, or K. Mayer being paced by J. Lelièvre during most of his world record decathlon 1500 m. All this will be thing of the past if the IAAF decides to extend to senior athletes what they will be experimenting on the juniors. I find this preposterous. (And a longer post on this point is under preparation).
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