Monte-Carlo - There has been a phenomenal level of entries received from IAAF Member Federations for the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships, Bydgoszcz, Poland, 8-13 July 2008.

The IAAF is delighted to confirm that 183 countries have entered teams to the championships. This is a particularly notable figure considering that the IAAF has a total of 213 Member Federations.

The next greatest number of participating teams for this IAAF World Athletics Series event, which were inaugurated in 1986, was the 176 countries that competed at the previous edition two years ago in Beijing, China.

The number of participating nations at each of the previous editions of the World Junior Championships:

’86 Athens - 143 nations
’88 Sudbury – 122
’90 Plovdiv – 86
’92 Seoul – 90
’94 Lisbon – 143
’96 Sydney – 143
’98 Annecy – 170
’00 Santiago – 152
’02 Kingston – 159
’04 Grosseto – 168
’06 Beijing – 176

IAAF