Committee gives progress report to IAAF council in Monaco, continues preparations for next July

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BY ALAN COCHRANE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF

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Organizers of the Moncton 2010 IAAF World Junior Championships in Track and Field got a big thumb's-up from the sanctioning body after appearing before them in Monaco over the weekend.

"The result of our meeting with them was exceedingly favourable. They seem to be very comfortable with all aspects of our planning," Local Organizing Committee vice-chairman Bill Whalen said yesterday.

Whalen and other members of the Moncton committee made a whirlwind trip to Monaco last week to appear before the council of the International Association of Athletics Federations to provide a written report and answer questions on Moncton's state of readiness. The championships in Moncton will have 2,500 athletes from 170 countries competing in 44 medal events between July 19 to 25. It is expected to be the biggest sporting event ever held in Atlantic Canada.

Whalen said it was a bit daunting to appear before the council, which has representatives from all over the world. He said some of the council members had questions for the Moncton delegation but overall seemed quite pleased that everything is going so well.

The Moncton event is one of six international competitions sanctioned by the IAAF next year and Whalen said members of the council had questions about such important issues as transportation between the event sites and the athlete villages and travel visas for athletes entering Canada.

"Judging by their reaction and the limited number of questions, we did very well in showing that our preparations are in a good state of readiness."

Moncton has already been visited four times by association representatives looking at various aspects of the preparations, including overall readiness, the operations and services that will be provided to the various media from all over the world. Coverage of the events will extend to 160 countries around the world.

The focus of the games will be the new stadium now under construction at l'Université de Moncton. About 12,000 people got a preview of the new stadium Monday night as Moncton hosted a celebration honouring the Olympic Flame. The stadium will have about 10,000 seats. Athletes will be housed at villages in Moncton and at Mount Allison University in Sackville.

Whalen said the organizing committee still has a big "to-do" list. One of the major items is a plan to get thousands of athletes, coaches, fans and media in and out of the Greater Moncton International Airport before and after the event. Another issue is obtaining travel visas for athletes from all over the world.

After that, the committee needs to co-ordinate transportation, security, medical care, meals, entertainment and many other aspects of hosting the games. Whalen said the lessons learned in past international events have come in and the experience gained will help others to put on similar events in the future.

More than 2,500 volunteers will be involved in hosting the games, including 500 members on the Local Organizing Committee for event planning. The games committee will begin a big ticket sales drive soon, and will put out the call for more volunteers early in the new year.