IAAF teams with WMA to sponsor 1st World Masters Conference in Torun

Strength and endurance training methods and techniques for masters athletes will be the key topics discussed at the inaugural IAAF WMA Masters Conference on 26-27 March in Torun, Poland.

The main objective of the conference, the first such collaboration between the IAAF and World Masters Athletics (WMA), is to contribute to the continuous professional development of master age level athletes - those 35 and older - in a practical and interactive way by providing presentations and Q&A sessions with athletes, scientists and trainers.

Through two recent global surveys, the IAAF and WMA identified the topics most relevant to today's large and growing international masters athletics community. Two of those topics, strength training and endurance training, will form the backbone of the conference.

The first day will focus on strength, lead by Dietmar Schmidtbleicher, the former Head and Chair of the Department of Exercise Physiology and Movement Science at Goethe-University Frankfurt-Main, who will present "Aspects of Strength Training with Masters".

The second day will focus on endurance, with Ulrich Hartmann, head of the Institute for Movement and Training Science at the Faculty of Sport Science at University of Leipzig, presenting “Aspects of Endurance Training with Masters”.

Both sessions will be followed with Q&A sessions attended by medal-winning master athletes and the session’s presenters.

The sessions will be moderated by Günter Lange, the Senior Manager of the IAAF Development Department.

For more information about the programme and presentations, visit the WMA website.

IAAF