Happy Holidays!
The IWF wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy and Successful New
IWF Handbook to be updated for 2008-2012
As with all the previous editions, the IWF intends to make a step-by-step and well-considered preparation of the next edition of the IWF Handbook, which contains:the Constitutionthe By-Lawsthe Technical Rulesand the Anti-Doping Policy of the IWF.(The currently valid IWF Handbook is available on this website.)As before, we wish to follow a well-proven procedure, whereby all the competent bodies of the IWF will have repeated opportunities to discuss, debate and approve or reject the various proposals before presenting a comprehensive Draft document to the 2008 IWF Electoral Congress.The procedure starts with the proposals of the National Federations and the Members of the Executive Board or the Committees. Therefore, if these have any proposals for the modification or updating of the IWF Constitution, the By-Laws or the Technical Rules, please forward these by letter, fax or e-mail to the IWF before 1st May
New Members to the Weightlifting Hall of Fame
Since its foundation in 1992, every year the Greats of weightlifting were elected to join the Weightlifting Hall of Fame. In 2006 four prominent figures of the sport's near past were chosen by the Hall of Fame panel to receive this outstanding honour.Alexander Kurlovich (BLR), double Olympic champion, Nicu Vlad (ROM), Olympic champion and Viacheslav Klokov (RUS), world champion received their Diploma and Plaque from Alain Lunzenfichter, Chairman of the Hall of Fame and Dr. Tamás Aján, IWF President at the Annual Congress in Santo Domingo.The fourth member, Mária Takács (HUN) deserved her entry to "eternity" by having participated in 12 women's world championships and capturing 33 out of the maximum of 36 medals. She was not able to travel to Dominica, because she has a newborn baby, so she took over her membership certificate from the same officials in a ceremony held in Budapest, on 15th December
Training course for Beijing 2008 Technical Officials
A training course for weightlifting National Technical Officials to work at the Beijing Olympic Games was held with great success in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, 22-31 October 2006. The seminar was organised jointly by BOCOG Sport, Mrs. Wang Yan, Weightlifting Competition Manager, and the Chinese Weightlifting Association; and the lecturer was Mr. Myrddin John, IWF Executive Board Member from Wales, one of the most experienced competition officials of the IWF.Altogether 87 referees from twenty-eight provinces from all around China attended the course. Mr. Wang Baoliang, Vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, and Mr. Ma Wenguang, President of the Chinese Weightlifting Association also came to the training course. A group photo of participants, lecturers and officialsThe Chinese Referees have commented on the training course: ?This is the best weightlifting training course I have ever attended.?, ?Our national championships can also learn a lot from the high-level organization of IWF international events.?, ?We primarily understand why Olympic Games are of the highest level.?, ?It is a very rare and valuable opportunity of learning about the international way of weightlifting competition management.?, ?I must pay more attention to my English studies in order to serve the Olympic Games.?, etc.. An intense study of the rules and techniques of organising such a large prestigious event was effectuated, with Myrddin John's informative lectures being continually punctuated by intelligent and probing questions from the students who were eager to absorb as much knowledge as possible. During the Beijing Olympic Games, twenty-five national technical officials will be working for weightlifting competitions. Through the training course, thirty-five referees have been selected for further education and training, and finally be qualified to officiate at the Beijing Olympic Games Weightlifting
Foreign coaches in demand
The IWF has noted an increasing demand from National Federations to employ foreign coaches to work with their national selections. Therefore National Federations and those coaches who are willing to work abroad to send their contact details to the IWF. At the IWF Secretariat Gabriella Barany is handling the matter:
Asian Games summary
?The IWF has assessed the organisation of the Asian Games in Qatar, in particular the weightlifting competitions, and concludes that it was a prime event of a very high standard,? says Dr. Tamás Aján, President of the IWF, following his return from Doha. ?We also appreciate the professional activity of the Technical Officials ? a great ?Thank You? to them. A record number of 35 participating nations and seven new world records are indicative that Asia is supreme in our sport: in fact the Asian continent is the strongest one overall. We are very sorry about the four positive results, while it must be noted that an unprecedented 50% (!) of the 173 participating weightlifters were tested in the IWF-DAGOC
