World Athletics held its 240th Council Meeting in Toruń, Poland, before the start of the 2026 Toruń World Athletics Indoor Championships. One of the key announcements was the awarding of the 2028 and 2030 championships to Odisha (India) and Astana (Kazakhstan), respectively. The organization, headed by Lord Sebastian Coe, added Hefei, China, as a host for the 2028 World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.

The meeting, held over two days on Tuesday and Wednesday, served to plan the athletic future. Coe welcomed delegates by illustrating Poland’s role in the sport of athletics, “Poland is one of the powerhouses of global athletics. With a long and distinguished tradition, having produced Olympic champions and world record-holders across multiple disciplines.”

India’s moment, in particular, carries historic weight. The 2028 Indoor Championships, scheduled from March 3 to 5, will mark the first time the country hosts a global event in athletics.

Meawnhile Odisha, located on the Bay of Bengal, with emerging hosting strength, held the Asian Championships in 2017. The Chief Minister, Shri Mohan Charan Majhi, said, “This is a moment of pride not only for Odisha but for the entire nation of India,” he announced.

Technical changes

Also, the Council approved amendments to athletic shoe regulations, specifically removing throwing events (shot put, discus, hammer) from the scope of shoe regulations. There are no regulations in these events for stack height or any other advancements in shoe technology.

Clarifications were provided for false starts in combined events, qualification rounds, and pacing regulations.

Something that athletics fans by and large favour is the strengthening of regulations to curb age manipulation and excessive club-level recruitment of athletes, particularly in younger age categories.

From World Athletics

Qualification principles

Another key competition decision concerned the approval of new principles governing qualification to the World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games. 

Endorsed by the Athletes’ Commission, the new qualification principles are an evolution of the existing qualification model used for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25. 

The model is again based on a dual pathway, but now 40% of athletes are expected to qualify through entry standards and the remaining 60% through world rankings, rather than the previous 50%-50% split. 

The principles apply to Category C events and above, with the goal of providing qualification opportunities through the global network of Continental Tour meetings. 

The qualification system frameworks for the World Athletics Championships Beijing 27 and the LA 2028 Olympic Games have been provisionally designed based on these principles. Further details including entry standards for each event will be submitted to the Council for approval at a future Council Meeting.

Eligibility Rules and Transfer of Allegiance Regulations

The current transfer of allegiance process was established following a freeze on transfers between 2017 and July 2018. At the time, the process was designed to address concerns over athlete recruitment by Member Federations where athletes had no prior connection with the country or territory. The process was refined in 2022. 

In Toruń, the World Athletics Council approved further amendments to the Eligibility Rules and Transfer of Allegiance Regulations concerning areas such as excessive numbers/en masse applications, recruitment led by clubs of athletes at younger ages, and a cap on the number of applications during an Olympic cycle. The Council has set clear imperatives within the regulations on how transfers are meant to complement the development programmes of applicant Member Federations.  

For clarity, the rules and regulations do not concern athletes choosing where in the world they live, work or train, including signing for clubs and teams in another Member Federation’s country or elsewhere. 

Competitions covered include World Athletics Series events, Area Championships, Regional Games, Olympic Games etc. where the athlete represents the Member Federation in a team capacity. They do not apply for the purposes of competing in one-day meetings or Label races i.e. tours or marathons etc. 

It is imperative that the rules and regulations protect the credibility and regularity of national representative competitions and other relevant competitions, by ensuring that athletes on a national representative team have a genuine connection with the country or territory represented, and do not switch either abruptly or frequently to other national representative teams for purely mercenary reasons. 

The Eligibility Rules and Transfer of Allegiance Regulations will be updated on the World Athletics website in due course.

Age manipulation

The Council approved two minor amendments to Eligibility Rule 3.4 and Technical Rule 3.2. addressing the risk of age verification and manipulation in certain jurisdictions.  

The amendments were deemed necessary with the World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26 later this year, and will enable World Athletics and the Athletics Integrity Unit to set specific requirements for age verification where there is a high degree of risk of age manipulation.

Competition decisions

A series of other technical rule amendments were approved, including: false start clarification for combined events (CR31.14.4); refining the wording governing qualification rounds to improve procedural certainty and reduce operational disputes in advancement scenarios (TR4.3); clarifying the status of pacing when the pacer is later found to be wearing non-compliant shoes (TR6.3.1); and updating the technical requirements regarding separate discus and hammer circles (TR35 / TR37). 

The Council also approved an update of the Athletic Shoe Regulations to remove throwing events conducted from a circle (shot put, discus and hammer) from the scope of the regulations, therefore permitting athletes to wear the footwear of their choice. 

Amendments were made to the Diamond League Regulations concerning greater flexibility to invite both a global and national wild card to the Diamond League Final. 

All updated documents will be uploaded to the World Athletics website in due course.

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