Two and a half days of vigorous scientific discussion and debate ended today as the 2007 IAAF Nutritional Consensus Conference came to a close with the drafting of the IAAF Consensus Statement on Nutrition.
Twenty-eight of the world’s leading experts in the field of nutrition debated many topics specifically relating to the disciplines of track and field. The first result of these discussions is the unanimous agreement on the IAAF Consensus Statement on Sports Nutrition which will be released shortly.
DAY ONE of the conference concentrated on nutritional recommendations for many of the specific athletics disciplines. Topics covered included the sprints, middle distance, long distance, jumps, throws and multi-events. In each section speakers provided evidence based advice and research and conclusions for its implementation into the daily lives of the athletes. The day was wrapped up with presentations on physique and performance of athletes in track and field events, and discussions on the “female athlete triad” which constitutes a serious health problem in female athletes when energy availability is insufficient.
DAY TWO concentrated on providing advice for issues and situations that all athletes find themselves involved with or in at some stage during their careers whether they are elite, sub-elite, or juniors. Nutrition for the young athlete, fluid needs for competition and training, fatigue and illness, supplements and nutrition for travel were just some of the discussions. There was new material and research presented and some great practical, and up-to-date advice for the athletes will be the results.
IAAF President Lamine Diack, who attended discussions on the second day, said: “I am very pleased to see the great work that has been completed before and during this conference. Hearing the nutritional recommendations for the young athletes was particularly interesting and certainly the research has changed since my competition days as a youth. The results of this particular topic will be extremely useful as we look forward to our World Youth Championships this year in Ostrava”.
“I am glad to hear that a draft of the Consensus Statement has been unanimously agreed upon and greatly look forward to releasing this document early next week. This statement will be an important tool and ongoing reference document for nutritional best practice in athletics”.
A copy of the IAAF Consensus Statement will be available on the IAAF website early next week in English, and then shortly afterwards in multiple other languages. In the coming months the IAAF will also release a number of practical tools such as booklets and CD’s aimed at providing clear and concise information to the stakeholders in the sport, in particular the athletes. In addition, all the scientific papers, reports, and PowerPoint presentations from the conference will be published and publicly available.
Once more the IAAF would like to thank Coca-Cola for their significant support of such a successful conference and for their ongoing commitment to the area of sports nutrition.
See the previous conference press release: click here
See the conference programme and list of topics: click here