IAAF President Lamine Diack concluded a three-week visit to Oceania in Melbourne today (9) with a visit to a new athletics centre, capping a tour which has taken him to New Zealand, Tahiti and the opening of a new headquarters for the Oceania Athletic Association on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

President Diack, along with Athletics Australia President Rob Fildes attended a media briefing at Athletics Australia headquarters in Melbourne after a brief visit to the city’s renowned sporting precinct which includes Melbourne Park, site of the recent Australian Tennis Open, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, venue for the 1956 Olympic and 2006 Commonwealth Games, and Olympic Park, Melbourne’s home of athletics which will stage the opening meeting of the IAAF World Challenge on 3 March.

The World Challenge meeting, the Victorian state championships and the Australian national titles meet will be the last three events staged at Olympic Park. The precinct is to be totally given over to professional sports (mainly Australian Rules football), with athletics moving to a new facility at Albert Park.

Building school and youth programmes

Addressing the media President Diack outlined his vision for athletics internationally with a focus on the participation of children vital for continuing success.
 
“For athletics to continue to grow we must continue to work with schools around the world to ensure the delivery of an athletics programmes for children of all ages,” President Diack said.
 
“Oceania, of which Australia is an active member, is acutely aware of this and I commend them for working to build programmes that interact with primary school aged children and beyond.”

After the briefing, President Diack joined Fildes, Athletics Victoria President Anne Lord and representatives of the Victorian state government for a tour of the new athletics centre at Albert Park.

The centre will host the 2012 Melbourne IAAF World Challenge meeting and the national championships. President Diack was impressed with the facility, which will include a new administrative building housing Athletics Australia, Athletics Victoria and the Australian Little Athletics Association.

A special country

President Diack also encouraged Australia to bid for a future IAAF World Championships, suggesting 2019 was an option. "You deserve to have a World Championships in this country.''

In recent years Brisbane made an unsuccessful bid to host the 2011 World Championships, a contest won by Daegu, Korea which will be the venue for the competitions from 27 August to 4 September this year.

The President also praised Australia as a “special country” in world athletics as one of the 17 founder members of the IAAF in 1912.

Australia integral to Oceania

Also commenting on Australia’s bid to compete alongside Asian nations at the Asian Athletics Championships, President Diack expressed his support but stressed that Australia is an integral piece of the Oceania Area.
 
“Asia provides athletics with great opportunities internationally, and for Australia to compete at such a large event is also beneficial,” President Diack said.
 
“Australia, though, in the IAAF constitution is a member of Oceania and this will not change. Competition is okay but a complete transfer is not an option like in soccer.”

“You will see Australia competing in Asian championships, but not in Asia.”

Football Australia has already moved from the Oceania region into the Asia. Australia was runner-up in the recent Asian Cup final in Doha and Melbourne will host the next edition of the continental tournament in 2015.

That was a full move, with Australia joining the Asian Football Confederation and qualifying from Asia for the 2010 World Cup.

Fildes made it clear that Athletics Australia was not considering a similar course.

“Our desire to compete at the Asian Athletics Championships is from a competition perspective only and the benefits that will provide are reward enough,” Fildes said.

Fildes will head to Kathmandu, Nepal, next week to present Australia’s case to compete in the Asian championships as soon as the 2011 edition in Kobe, Japan, this August.

Len Johnson and Athletics Australia for the IAAF