World Athletics offers funding to help Ukraine train for world championships this summer

Dozens of Ukrainian track and field athletes and officials preparing for the world championships in August could get funding for a training camp, World Athletics said on Monday.

World Athletics will invest $ 190,000 US and prioritize changing equipment for pole vaulters – the event of the great Ukrainian Sergey Bubka – which has been destroyed in a Russian missile attack.

A college in Bakhmut named for Bubka, the senior vice president of World Athletics, is part of a sports complex including a track stadium and an indoor arena that has been destroyed during a fierce fight in recent months, the national track federation said.

“It is the only center where athletes can conduct training camps at any time of the year. Now there is nothing left in Bakhmut,” Ukrainian officials said in a letter, World Athletics said.

The President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe promised before the 19-27 August world in Budapest, Hungary to do “everything possible to help athletics survive and recover in Ukraine.”

“The deliberate destruction of Ukrainian athletics facilities and equipment is also a serious attack on the accessibility of our sport,” Coe said in a statement.

A strong attitude

World Athletics has eliminated athletes and officials from Russia and its military ally Belarus during the war and both countries will miss the upcoming worlds. He was also excluded from the 2022 worlds in Eugene, Ore.

Track’s stance is the strongest among Olympic sports as the International Olympic Committee pushes governing bodies to find ways to reunite Russia and Belarus as neutrals ahead of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Ukraine had a team of 22 athletes at the world final five months after the war began. Medals were won in the high jump – silver for Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women’s event and bronze for Andriy Protsenko on the men’s side.

“We want to make sure that Ukrainian athletes have an equal opportunity to compete and be successful this year,” Coe said.

Up to 100 people in the Ukrainian athletics community could need financial support this year, World Athletics said, including travel and accommodation for elite athletes at training camps over the next three months.