WMRA Congress Update

 The WMRA Congress took place, virtually, on the 17^th of February. 

WMRA Council members and candidates were joined by representatives from World Athletics and 22 national federations to discuss the recent work that the WMRA has been doing in Mountain Running and the future direction of the sport.

Alessio Punzi, World Athletics Road Running Manager, gave an update from World Athletics before the Council reported on some of the work that has been done in recent years, including changes in the structure of the World Cup, the continued growth of the World Mountain Running Ranking and the WMRA's collaboration with athletes through the Athlete Commission.

There was a review of the 2021 competition programme, with the World Masters Championship in Telfes and the Nations Cup in Chiavenna, a new event for 2021, being seen as particularly successful. A proposal for the addition of a World Masters Long Distance Championship is to be further reviewed.

A discussion followed of the competition calendar for 2022 and 2023, concerning both the continued evolution of the World Cup and the various championships. Following this year's International U18 Mountain Running Cup in Saluzzo, Italy and World Masters Championship in Clonmel, Ireland, the 2023 events will take place in Annecy, France and Porto Moniz, Portugal respectively.

Finally, elections also took place to select the WMRA Council for the next 4 years, as well as to elect a new President, Treasurer and Secretary.

With Jonathan Wyatt stepping down as President, Tomo Šarf was elected to that position while Nancy Hobbs became Secretary and Sarah Rowell was elected as Treasurer.

The makeup of WMRA Council for the next 4 years is as follows:

We thank Wolfgang Münzel and Andrzej Puchacz for their years of work on the Council.

The next Congress will take place during the World Championships in Thailand in November.