The first day of World Armwrestling Championship, Vilnius, Lithuania: referees meeting, Asian, North American and European continental meetings. ()
The first significant event of the championship was a referee seminar. According to the World Armwrestling Federation head referee Leonard Harkless, the theoretical part of a seminar – tests and theory analysis – have been passed by 60 judges from around the world. Practice was passed by 46 referees. «Finally we have an ideal competition – said Leonard. – All fights for all four days will be hold by qualified referees, who has «senior» and «master» rank. This is what I sought for a long time. In addition, the fights will be held at eight tables».
General and very important topic of the Continental Congress was a matter of World Armwrestling Federation enter in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). A President of World Armwrestling Federation Assen Hadzhitodorov said: «This year we made two huge steps that lead us to the Olympic Committee. Firstly, we have become full members of the anti-doping committee. Secondly, this achievement and hard work of the Head Secretary of the World Federation Mircea Simionescu has allowed us to apply all the documents for membership in «Sport Accord».
Our formal membership in this organization is a matter of time».
Also Assen Hadzhitodorov noted that because of these achievements a federation has an important responsibility and new requirements, according to which some doping tests will be made between competitions too. If the federation complies with the requirements of WADA and «Sport Accord», then it is likely that the armwrestling will enter the list of the World Games 2017.
In addition, the European Congress supported Assen Hadzhitodorov about the number of doping tests at the next European Championships – they will be 40, as in the last one. Also Marian Capla introduced the proposal to conduct team championships.
The North American Congress addressed the topic of doping control for athletes who have changed gender surgically because indicators of the level of certain hormones for these athletes do not always meet the standards.
An important theme of Asian Congress was the problem of World Championship 2015 in Malaysia. Representatives of Asian federation have expressed doubts about these events due to a number of reasons, depending on the Malaysian federation. But the decision rests with the World Federation, which Congress will take place on 16 September.
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