World Athletics President Sebastian Coe was elected for a third term at the 54th World Athletics Congress in Budapest on Thursday. Meanwhile, Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda’s Donna Raynor were elected to the World Athletics Council.

Ximena Restrepo was re-elected as a Vice President and will be joined by newly elected Vice Presidents Raul Chapado, Adille Sumariwalla and Jackson Tuwei.

A total of 192 voting members of Congress voted for Coe and three abstained. Under the World Athletics Constitution, this will be Coe’s final term as President.

In 2019, Restrepo, the 1992 Olympic 400m bronze medallist from Colombia, became the first woman to be elected as a World Athletics Vice President.

As part of the widespread reforms adopted by the World Athletics Congress at the end of 2016, World Athletics added minimum gender targets into its constitution to establish parity at all levels in the sport’s governance.

The reforms detailed a requirement to have 13 members of each gender elected to the World Athletics Council at the 2027 Congress. This target has been met four years earlier than the reform roadmap prescribed.

The remaining requirement to be met at the 2027 Congress is the election of two Vice Presidents of each gender.

"I’m grateful for the support of my colleagues and delighted to see that more of the commitments we made during the governance reform process in 2016 have come to fruition with the election of World Athletics’ first gender equal Council four years ahead of schedule," said Coe. "But the job is not done yet and we need to keep pushing for gender parity throughout our representative bodies. The strength of our sport is in its diversity and that should be reflected in our governance at all levels."

The newly elected members of the World Athletics Council are: Yuko Arimori (JPN), Anna Riccardi (ITA), Annette Purvis (NZL), Nawal El Moutawakel (MAR), Nan Wang (CHN), Abby Hoffman (CAN), Nataliia Dobrynska (UKR), Sylvia Barlag (NED), Beatrice Ayikoru (UGA), Willie Banks (USA), Antti Pihlakoski (FIN), Cydonie Mothersill (CAY) and Donna Raynor (BER).

On the 26-strong World Athletics Council, the 13 newly elected members will be joined by six Area Presidents and two members of the Athletes' Commission, one woman and one man, including the Chair.

The World Athletics Council agreed to update the eligibility regulations for transgender and DSD athletes to compete in the female category.

For DSD athletes, the new regulations will require any relevant athletes to reduce their testosterone levels below a limit of 2.5 nmol/L for a minimum of 24 months to compete internationally in the female category in any event, not just the events that were restricted (400m to one mile) under the previous regulations.

The principle of restricted events has been removed from the regulations.

Interim provisions will be introduced for those relevant athletes who are already competing in what were the unrestricted events (distances below 400m and above one mile, plus field events). These provisions include a requirement to suppress their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for a minimum of six months, before they are eligible to compete again.

The six months period is consistent with the previous regulations, which required six months of testosterone suppression (below 5nmol/L) for DSD athletes to compete in the restricted events. The interim provisions do not apply to the previously restricted events (400m to one mile) where two years of testosterone suppression will be required before the relevant athlete is eligible to compete.

These regulations will come into effect on 31 March 2023.

In regard to transgender athletes, the Council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition from 31 March 2023.

World Athletics conducted a consultation period with various stakeholders in the first two months of this year, including Member Federations, the Global Athletics Coaches Academy and Athletes’ Commission, the IOC as well as representative transgender and human rights groups.

It became apparent that there was little support within the sport for the option that was first presented to stakeholders, which required transgender athletes to maintain their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for 24 months to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category.

In terms of DSD regulations, World Athletics has more than ten years of research and evidence of the physical advantages that these athletes bring to the female category.

However, there are currently no transgender athletes competing internationally in athletics and consequently no athletics-specific evidence of the impact these athletes would have on the fairness of female competition in athletics.

In these circumstances, the Council decided to prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion.

However the Council agreed to set up a Working Group for 12 months to further consider the issue of transgender inclusion.

This Working Group will include an independent chair, up to three Council Members, two athletes from the Athletes’ Commission, a transgender athlete, three representatives of the Member Federations and representatives of the World Athletics Health and Science Department.

Its remit will be to consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek their views on competing in athletics; to review and/or commission additional research where there is currently limited research and to put forward recommendations to Council.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations. We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount."

The World Athletics Council has approved an innovation to the regular competition format for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, introducing a repechage round to all individual track events from 200m to 1500m in distance, including the hurdles events.

In the new repechage format, athletes who do not qualify by place in round one heats will have a second chance to qualify for the semi-finals by participating in repechage heats.

This will replace the former system of athletes advancing through the fastest times (q) in addition to the top placings in the first round heats (Q).

These events will now have four rounds – round one, repechage round, semi-finals and the final, with schedules varying according to the specific nature of the event.

The new format means that every athlete competing in the events with a repechage round will have at least two races at the Olympic Games.

As the 100m already has preliminary heats, before round one, the repechage will not be introduced in this event. In addition, the repechage will not be introduced in distance events as the need for proper recovery between rounds makes the format impractical.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “After consulting with our athletes and broadcasters, we believe this is an innovation which will make progression in these events more straightforward for athletes and will build anticipation for fans and broadcasters. The repechage rounds will give more exposure to our sport during the peak Olympic period and will be carefully scheduled to ensure that every event on our Olympic programme retains its share of the spotlight.”

The final regulations of the format, including the timetable as well as a system of advancement in each event, will be announced well in advance of the Olympic Games.

 

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