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IWF REFORM AND GOVERNANCE COMMISSION ESTABLISHED

The first meeting of the IWF Reform and Governance Commission was held over the weekend of Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, with Darren Charles Kane of Australia selected to start as Chair. The Commission will now be responsible for developing a new constitution and bylaws with a deadline of 22 January 2021. The new governing documents are to be circulated to IWF Member Federations two months prior to the IWF Electoral Reform Congress scheduled for 24 March 2021. “I am very grateful to the leading independent experts who have agreed to support the IWF with the huge undertaking ahead of us: revising our governance in just three months,” said IWF Interim President Dr Michael Irani. “The goal of complete reform for the IWF’s governance is ambitious but also achievable. It is also overdue, notably in areas like athlete representation, term limits, accountability and transparency. Fortunately, we have reason to be optimistic. The successful reform of the IWF’s anti-doping procedures, based on principles of independent expertise and wide-ranging consultation, points to what can be achieved and how.” Alongside Kane, who also sits on the Legal Committee of FINA, will be Damaris Itzel Young Aranda of Panama, a former international athlete who is also a sports law expert and member of the IOC Athletes’ Entourage Commission. They will be joined by Ximena Restrepo, an Olympic medallist for Colombia who in 2019 became the first ever female Vice President of World Athletics. The Commission will work based on the guidelines of ASOIF in regard to governance measurement and improvement. The independent experts will also be joined by IWF officials. “It’s a great honour to have this chance to help another of the select number of sports to have been part of the Olympic Games ever since they were reborn in 1896,” said IWF Reform and Governance Commission chair Darren Charles Kane. “It’s too early to tell exactly how the IWF’s governing documents will change in the coming months, but we already know the principles we want to see being applied to the reform process, with consultation, best practice, transparency and accountability key among them.” Next steps for the IWF Reform and Governance Commission will include consideration of proposals from IWF Member Federations, consultation of external bodies (including the IOC, ASOIF, GAISF, WADA and the ITA) and the drafting of new

China’s National Weightlifting Championships

China’s National Weightlifting Championships have successfully concluded, with its 4-day competitions for women finished on Oct 19th in Shaoyang City, Hunan Province and 4-day’s competitions for men finished on Oct 25th in Kaihua City, Zhejiang Province. CHINADA has conducted a total of 165 tests including 14 blood tests for the above Championships, with 83 for women and 82 for men respectively. Opening Ceremony of China’s National Weightlifting Championships for Men A total of 482 lifters competed in China’s National Weightlifting Championships, with 207 female lifters and 275 male lifters from all over china. There are a total of 66 times of National Records breaking, with 3 times of them surpassing the World Records in Senior Women's Snatch, once surpassing the World Records in Senior Men’s Snatch and 2 times surpassing the World Records in Senior Men’s C&J. Mr. GOU Zhongwen, China’s Sport Minister and President of Chinese Olympic Committee attended the Championships and presented medals. He highly praised the event organization led by Mr. ZHOU Jinqiang, President of Chinese Weightlifting Association and the competition level of the Championships. Mr. ZHOU Jinqiang, President of Chinese Weightlifting Association presenting medals to Mr. LYU Xiaojun, Olympic Champion and World Record Holder “The organization of our National Championships is to fulfill the needs and desire of the Chinese lifters to compete after 10 months due to the impact of COVID-19, and all the lifters are very excited in the competitions after such a long period.” Mr. ZHOU commented in an interview after the Championships, “The National Championships are also served as simulation competitions of Tokyo Olympic Games for the Chinese National Team. Some athletes made excellence performances while some other not considering the pressure they were under. Nonetheless, this is very enlightening and will be of help for our National Team to make more individualized training plan for the upcoming Tokyo Games. ” Source: Chinese Weightlifting

Majority of the National Federations support the Constitution and Electoral Congress

The IWF is pleased that so far 130 Member Federations have expressed their support of the decision made to hold the Constitution and Electoral Congress during 24-28 March, 2021. The names of the Countries supporting the proposals are: Africa (25): Algeria, Botswana, Cameroun, Comores, Congo, Dem. Rep. Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tunisia, Uganda, Zimbabwe Asia (42): Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Chinese Taipei, Democ. P. R. Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen Europe (28): Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia Herczeg., Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine Oceania (13): Australia, Guam, Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Marianas, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tahiti,Vanuatu Panamerica (22): Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela The Executive Board is also pleased and appreciative that Colombia has become the first IWF Member Federation to propose improvements and amendments to the IWF Constitution which is welcomed and the Board urges all Member Federations to take this opportunity to make their proposals, their suggestions, which will be forwarded to the Reform and Governance Commission for careful

IWF Signs Multi-Year Contract Extension With ITA, Responds To WADA I&I Report

Lausanne; 22 October 2020; The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) today confirmed an extension of its partnership with the International Testing Agency (ITA) until the end of 2024 and provided an initial response to the report published by the Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) department of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The agreement signed this week will empower the ITA to manage the entire anti-doping programme for international weightlifting, including the investigation and prosecution of all anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs). Since the first weightlifting agreement was signed with the ITA, it has collected more than 2,700 samples from weightlifters and investigated more than 110 ADRVs. “The IWF is grateful to the ITA for its comprehensive management of anti-doping in international weightlifting,” said IWF Interim President Dr. Mike Irani. “Clean weightlifters can rest assured that our sport now benefits from a world-class, independently administered anti-doping programme which will continue well into the future.” Today also saw the publication of WADA I&I’s report into weightlifting, summarizing a number of lines of investigation spanning several years. “The provisional outcomes of WADA’s investigation into doping within weightlifting make for shocking reading,” continued Irani. “The IWF is firmly committed to empowering the ITA with the resources necessary for followup of any intelligence provided to it by WADA.” “The IWF is determined to ensure a level playing field for the clean weightlifters, coaches and officials acknowledged by WADA. We will continue to take the necessary steps to deliver this level playing field, relying on the independent advice of WADA, the ITA and the IWF’s newly-formed independent Anti-Doping Commission.

Jorge Nascimbeni (1940 – 2020)

On Sunday, October 18, at the age of 80, and with more than 40 devoted to the institutional life of the Argentine and South American Weightlifting Community, our dear friend, Jorge Nascimbeni passed away, leaving behind an example of work, honesty and kindness, which can never be forgotten by those who had the privilege of having known him. His life has always been linked to the Weightlifting sport from his youth when He began his activity as an athlete in the mid-1950s, reaching outstanding performances at the National level, along with athletes such as Selvetti, Eguiguren and Novua. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Argentine Weightlifting Federation as a leader and as early as 1978, he joined the Board of Directors, together with Ramón Facal and Basilio Chalak. In the early 1980s he joined the South American Weightlifting Federation, where his performance as Secretary/Treasurer showed considerable institutional growth, and sporting development of the region, which was consolidated when, together with Jorge Zas Fernandez, Basilio Chalak, Oscar Donayo, David Montero, among others, it was possible for the South American Region to obtain the institutional rank of Continent, separated from the Central American region. In 1983, he passed his examination of a world-class international judge, which He performed masterfully at countless International events, for more than 30 years. The immense sorrow caused by the loss of this great friend is compensated by the legacy left to us as leader, judge and fundamentally, as a human being. The Argentine Weightlifting Federation, in this way, pays its most sincere tribute to whom has been its most outstanding personality over the last 50 years. Source: Argentinian Weightlifting

Sarah Davies: Birmingham 2022 will be women’s time to shine

  Today Birmingham 2022 is confirming that it will be the first major multi-sport event to award more medals to women than men for the first time in history. This is a huge landmark for women's sport, and I am delighted and proud to be part of the Athletes' Advisory Committee for a Games that clearly values women's sport so highly. We've been waiting in the wings for a long time. The Gold Coast edition of the Games two years ago saw a big step forward, with an equal number of medals awarded to men and women but in two years' time women will finally be taking centre stage. We've had high hopes that this moment would come but today, with the full unveiling of the medal event programme for the Games, we've now had confirmation that it's our time to shine. To celebrate this historic milestone Birmingham 2022 has gathered together some legends, current competitors and rising stars of women's sport, to take part in a series of live discussions throughout the day and I'm honoured to have been invited to be part of it all. We'll be looking back at the history of the Commonwealth Games movement and discussing some of the key moments that have led us to this point, with Commonwealth Games Federation President, Dame Louise Martin, Olympic and Commonwealth pentathlon champion, Lady Mary Peters, the first ever women's Commonwealth triple jump champion, Ashia Hansen, and Australian cycling legend, Anna Meares. I'll be part of a panel with one of my Team England team mates from the Gold Coast Games, gold medal winning netballer Eboni Usoro-Brown, and we'll be joined by three outstanding Para-athletes who'll be hoping to take part in the Games for the first time in Birmingham; swimmer Maisie Summers-Newton, wheelchair basketballer Siobhan Fitzpatrick and five-time Paralympic champion and 12-time world champion, Hannah Cockroft. Because not only is Birmingham 2022 going to be a wonderful celebration of women's sport, but it will also be an important showcase for Para-sport, as this edition of the Games will have the biggest ever Para-sport offering, with eight sports fully integrated into the programme. The third and final panel will look ahead to the future of women's sport because although we've made great progress, our work is not yet done, as we need to work together to ensure that more women are appointed into senior management positions in sport and that more women have a seat at the boardroom table too. I've been enjoying my role as chair of the International Weightlifting Federation Athletes' Commission and it would be good to see more women given opportunities like this. As well as the 136 medal events for women and 134 for men, Birmingham 2022 will have 13 mixed events for athletes to take part in, more than we've ever had before at a Commonwealth Games. This will include mixed synchronising three metre springboard diving and synchronised 10m platform diving, as well as swimming relays and mixed Para-athletics relays – another first for the Games. Right now, it is such an exciting time to be involved in Birmingham 2022. Just a few days ago the daily schedule for the Games was also unveiled, so we now know exactly which sports will take place on every single one of the 11 days of competition. The Games will start with a bang as the first day is packed with action and will feature 14 different sports. This includes basketball 3x3 at the recently announced venue at Smithfield in the centre of Birmingham, artistic gymnastics at Arena Birmingham, and hockey and squash at the University of Birmingham, unveiled last month as a major partner for the Games. Women's cricket T20, added to the programme in August last year, will be also begin at Edgbaston Stadium on Friday July 29 and the aquatics programme will start on the same day with the swimmers getting the action underway at the brand new Sandwell Aquatics Centre, which is currently under construction in Smethwick. My focus will be on days two to seven when the weightlifting and Para-powerlifting will be taking place at the NEC but it is a sports programme which has something for everyone and will also showcase the entire West Midlands region, with events taking place from Cannock Chase Forest to Leamington Spa and from West Park in Wolverhampton to Sutton Park in Birmingham. This week has also seen another major moment for the Games with the launch of a new advertising campaign, with some of the West Midlands' finest and athletes from further afield all coming together to help celebrate greatness and build the excitement for Birmingham 2022. The Games is clearly starting to take shape and it’s all beginning to feel very real. I for one cannot wait for the summer of 2022 to arrive and I know that sportswomen from across the Commonwealth will seize the historic opportunity that Birmingham 2022 is providing, to demonstrate exactly why women should always be in the sporting spotlight.   Source : Sarah Davies -