News31 Jul 2003


IAAF 'B Standard Project' pays dividends for Egypt

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Marwa Hussein with Pal Nemeth (© ATC Szombathely)

Earlier this year the IAAF implemented  its ‘B Standard Projet’. The ambitious aim of the project is to enable every IAAF Federation to have at least one athlete achieve the minimum qualifying B Standard for the IAAF World Championships and Olympic Games.

The project aims to assist athletes, who have the potential but lack the appropriate athletics environment to develop their best results to the level of the “B” qualification standards.
The IAAF will offer the selected athletes three kinds of programmes based on their athletics skills and level of performances:

a. Short-Term Programme: for athletes with the potential to achieve the “B” qualification standard before the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Paris. The IAAF will support a short-term (4-6 weeks) training camp in order to allow them to take part in specific training sessions and suitable qualifying competitions.
 
b. Medium-Term Programme: for athletes with the potential to achieve the “B” qualification standard before the Olympic Games 2004, and the World Championships in Athletics 2005, a plan of adequate duration will be elaborated.

c. Long-Term Programme: for athletes currently under the age of 23 years with the potential to achieve the “B” qualification standard before the World Championships in Athletics 2007 and Olympic Games 2008, a plan of adequate duration will be elaborated.

The IAAF objective for this year is to identify and then provide 30 athletes with scholarships (approximately five from each area) from the Federations which have athletes that may reasonably achieve the “B” qualification standard in a short period.

One of the first successful beneficiaries of the project was the Egyptian Hammer Thrower Marwa Hussein, who after a short stay at the IAAF Accredited Training Centre in Szombathely, threw a new African women’s record of 64.77 metres in a competition on 12 July and passed the B Qualifying Standard for Paris of 64 metres. Hussein was coached by Hungarian Hammer Throw legend Pal Nemeth.

As the Hammer Throw cannot be held in the Monaco stadium for technical reasons, Szombathely will also host the Hammer Throw competition of the inaugural IAAF World Athletics Final on 7 September 2003.

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