ANNUAL TWIF CONGRESS Minutes
April, 2014
Belfast Northern
Ireland
1. Address
by the President. President McKeever opened with a moment of
silence for those colleagues who have passed on in the past year. The president
went on to say that this is the first time a TWIF Congress has been held in
Northern Ireland. The president welcomed the members to the 2014 Congress in
Belfast.
The president
introduced the ExCo and asked the representatives to introduce themselves.
2.
Roll call of the members. By
the Secretary
The following 16 member
countries were present:
China England Germany Ireland
Israel Italy Japan Netherlands
Northern Ireland South
Africa Spain Sweden
Switzerland Chinese Taipei United States Wales
2.1
Confirmation of a quorum. A quorum was established
3. Confirmation
of the members present in good standing. The Treasurer reported 24 members
have paid affiliation fees and the 16 members present are in good standing.
4. Appointment
of scrutineers. Gunther Fahrion from Germany and Hugh McFetridge from
Northern Ireland were appointed scrutineers.
5. Confirmation
of the minutes of Congress 2013. Proposed by the Netherlands and seconded
by Ireland to accept the minutes as published.
On
a vote: the proposal passed unanimously
6. Matters Arising. No matters arising.
7. Report
covering the period since the last Congress. Cathal McKeever Attachment( B
)
The president gave an
explanation of his report by a power-point presentation. The president
announced that recently the TWIF ExCo received an e-mail stating that all GENSB
countries were not ready to sign the contract with TWIF. The ExCo has decided
not to proceed further until all GENSB countries have reached agreement. The
president stated that he has asked Northern Ireland to host the 2015 Junior
World Championships and they have agreed to do so. South Africa stated that they would like to
see the Junior World Championships take place with the current European and
World Championships. It was decided to investigate keeping the Junior World
Championship as it is being implemented at the present time.
7.1
Sport Accord, ARISF by the President( attachment B)
8. Finance. By the Treasurer, Anton
Rabe
8.1 Submission and vote on the balance
sheets and accounts.
Ø Mr
Rabe gave an explanation of the circulated balance sheet by power point
presentation.
8.2 Approval of the
budget.
Ø The
budget was explained by power point presentation.
Ø Mr
Rabe discussed the moving of the TWIF website and competition program service
provider to South Africa.
Ø Mr.
Rabe stated that he is working on a presentation for sponsors.
Ø The
Netherlands asked how TWIF can get the members to pay their membership fees.
The treasurer said that TWIF has tried different methods with no results.
Proposed by Japan and
seconded by United States to accept the balance sheets and proposed budget.
On a vote the
proposal passed unanimously.
9. Policy Plan 2013-2016 Update. President McKeever gave an update to the policy plan,
Ø Acquiring
Sponsors: Mr. Rabe is working on developing a brochure to attract sponsors.
Ø ICT:
The president said Bruce Schuman has recently been in Cape Town to work with
and develop a new server ABC in South Africa.
Ø Anti-Doping:
TWIF is WADA Code Compliant, Mr. Martin has submitted a full report.
Ø Management:
The ExCo is mindful of this and our duties are well defined and are looked at
frequently.
Ø Olympic
Inclusion: This is ongoing but we are not making much headway but we have
regular contact with the IOC.
Ø Schools
and Youth organizations: All of the members have been sent a letter by the Vice
President requesting information on the various programs but not all countries
have responded. Ms. Hornstra is asking
the remaining countries to please respond so she can make a summaryof all of
the youth competitions.
Ø Image
and presentation of our sport: Mr Martin has sent correspondence asking teams
to clean up their appearance on the field. The president said that in Assen the
teams looked much better than in the past.
Ø Use
of New Media: Yes TWIF is conscious of that and our Vice President Maaike
Hornstra has introduced face book as a way of communicating. It is a one way
Face Book from TWIF.
Ø Make
contact with the World Media: This would include World-wide press not just
local news organizations. TWIF has had contact with a person that could help
with this but it would cost TWIF about £20,000.
Ø Extending
Membership: Encourage new memberships and existing members making contact with
potential new members.
Ø Communication:
The secretary from time to time sends information out to the members. However,
we are not sure that the information gets to the athletes. Make sure the
information going out from TWIF gets to the athletes
Ø TWIF
development courses: This is an ongoing process and we hope we can eventually
get more countries involved in championships.
Ø TWIF
development courses for new and existing officials: Yes TWIF does this and this
is an ongoing effort.
10. Affiliation
of new members: Maaike Hornstra announced that the following countries have
applied for membership to TWIF.
Ø Bangladesh
has applied for membership but has not fulfilled its obligation for membership.
Ø Panama
and the United Arab Emirates have also made initial inquiries about becoming members.
Ø Gambia
and Malaysia have fulfilled criteria for membership and the ExCo is proposing
to accept these two countries as members. Seconded by the Netherlands.
On a vote, Malaysia
and Gambia were unanimously accepted as new members of TWIF. Completion of their
membership is contingent on them paying their affiliation fee.
11. Proposals and question submitted by the
members and all other matter which
the Executive Committee wishes to propose. (See Attachment A)
12. Reports
from commission.
12.1 Technical Commission. Tony
Martin (Attachment C ) Reminded delegates that the TC had suggested the change
of dress for Time Keepers and Recorders. Black will be the color of skirts and
trousers starting in 2015.
12.2
PR Commission. Maaike Hornstra:
Ø Thanked
members of the committee, Rosemary Smith, Denis Dunlea, and Anton Rabe.
Ø Mrs
Hornstra asked how many read the TWIF magazine.
Ø TWIF
has a Face Book account.
Ø The
TWIF website will be new after the 2014 world Championships.
Ø The
PR Commission needs input from our members all over the world.
12.3 Anti-Doping.
Birute/ Report Tony Martin (Attachment D) Tony Martin Chairman of the TWIF
Anti-Doping Commission reported 16 countries had returned their Anti-Doping
reports.
Ø Mr.
Martin thanked the following countries: Pakistan, Sweden, Singapore, Belgium,
Japan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ireland, United States, Spain, Northern Ireland,
Latvia, India, England, Germany & Wales.
Ø Mr.
Martin stated that this information which is very important goes to WADA and
the IOC.
Ø Mr.
Martin announced that a new anti- doping regulation book has been put together
but has to be edited by our anti-doping administrator and approved by WADA. As
soon as it is approved by WADA it will be issued to the members.
12.4 Medical Panel/Nothing to report.
12.5
Athletes Commission (Attachment E) Mrs Hornstra invited members to submit
questions to the committee.
12.6 Appeal
Commission appointments/Nothing to
report.
13. Championships.
Past present and future
13.1
European
Outdoor Championship Assen Netherlands
2013/ Evaluation
The secretary
reported on the evaluation of the championships: Overall the secretary reported
high marks for the Netherlands. The secretary gave the averaged evaluation
report. Low marks were in respect of the press center and program.
The secretary
circulated information comparing the participation level of previous
championships since 2009. Attached is the comparison sheet for championships.
13.2
Indoor
World Championship Castlebar Ireland/ Evaluation. The secretary reported that
those that sent evaluations scored the championships very good. The low
rankings were due to a lack of press center and a program.
13.3 World
Games Cali Colombia - 2013/ Report by Glen Johnson( Attachment F) The secretary
reported that the Tug of War at World Games was well supported by the
University where the games were held. Sell-out crowds and enthusiastic
participants made the games a huge success. South Africa and others put a great
deal of time and effort into helping the Colombian pullers. The secretary
announced that Tug of War has been included in the 2017 World Games.
13.4 Signing
of the contracts took place with Northern Ireland 2015, Netherlands 2016 Indoor
and Sweden 2016 World Outdoor.
14.
World
Outdoor Championship 2014 – USA/Update/During Seminar/ The president announced
that Lars Lindh had put forward a perpetual trophy to be given at the World
Championships 2014. Lars Lindh Challenge perpetual Trophy for the Men’s Under
23 Weight Class.
15. Tenders
for Future Championships (None)
Ø Countries
have indicated there will be tenders for 2018 Indoor, 2019 Outdoor. There is
also the possibility of tenders for 2020.
16. Updates for future Championships to be
given during the Seminar. The Netherlands talked about 2016 Indoor World
Championships Volendam. Mrs, Langeveld expressed concern about the
participation in these championships. She stated that she has a goal of 25
countries participating. TWIF must think about how we go forward and get some
of our 70 members to take part in championships.
17. Other
Business for the good of tug of war.
Ø The
Tug of War Tournament Scorze Italy June 21, 2014 was referenced.
Ø Mr.
Takahashi from Japan stated that the 2020 Olympic Games are in Japan and they
will try to promote tug of war next year.
Ø Mr.
Anders Anderson from Sweden asked about the program for the mixed in future
championships. The president said that the program has been worked out for
future championships and will, hopefully, prove to work satisfactorily.
Ø Switzerland
announced that the Switzerland Association in conjunction with the Eberseken
tug of war club will tender for the 2020 World Championships.
Ø South
Africa announced that the All African Championships will take place in July
2014 and there are hopes that an Oceanic Championships will take place in the
foreseeable future.
Ø South
Africa will have a youth championships the 27th and 28th
of March 2015.
Ø Tiny
Langeveld stated that it would be good to have a coaching course during
championships.
Ø President
McKeever made a presentation to South Africa for outstanding work in helping to
promote the Tug of War sport. The presentation is called the President Award
and this is the first occasion such an award has been made.
Ø Due
to the fact that Latvia was not present Maaike Hornstra Vice President of TWIF
will present the President Award for outstanding promotional work to Latvia
when she visits there in May.
18
.Future meetings. The Next Congress will take
place in Malmo Sweden.
19. Closing by the
president. President McKeever thanked the Northern Ireland Association for
hosting the congress and thanked the members for their participation and
cooperation.
Attachment (A)
Proposals and
Questions
1. Proposed
by the ExCo Seconded
by The Netherlands All positions elected/re-elected in 2015:
·
Senior VP and Treasurer
for a period of 2 years, and election/re-election for 4 years in 2017
(thereafter every 4 years in 2021, 2025, etc.)
·
President, VP and Secretary
General for 4 years, and election/re-election for 4 years in 2019 (thereafter
every 4 years in 2023, 2027, etc.)
Result:
Election/Re-election every 2 years, with terms over-lapping at least 2 years.
On a vote passed unanimously
2. Proposal by
Germany Seconded
by Wales
Additional Weigh In time on Friday evening for members of the national
teams.
Explanation:It is not so easy for the athletes to get 1 week off
from work. When they could weigh in on Friday they only need one day off from
work.
This procedure
is for athletes who only start in the national teams and cannot arrive before Friday.
There should be an option for these athletes to weigh on Friday so that they
have the chance to be part of the tournament.The German representative
explained the proposal.
Original
proposals was withdrawn
2.1 Amended by the TWIF Executive Seconded
byNorthern Ireland
To read as
follows:
"Additional weigh in time on
Friday evening for those members of the national teams who are unable for
exceptional circumstances to attend at the earlier specified time
The president said this should be
the exception not the rule.
On a
vote the amendment passed unanimously
3. Proposed by the Netherlands Seconded by South
Africa
That TWIF appoints as much officials for TWIF championships from the
organising country including all available judges and recorders from that
country.
Proposal withdrawn
4. Proposed by England Seconded
bySouth Africa
The
proposal is to reduce the youngest age at which a Junior puller can compete.
The
existing rule states;
AGE LIMITS
5.1 Junior category
A puller is eligible to participate in the junior category
from the beginning of the year in which the puller reaches the age of 15 years
until the end of the year in which the puller reaches the age of 18 years.
The revised rule would read;
AGE LIMITS
5.1 Junior category
A puller is eligible to participate in the junior category
from the beginning of the year in which the puller reaches the age of 13 years
until the end of the year in which the puller reaches the age of 18 years.
The reason for this is twofold. Firstly the age group for
GENSB is from the year of their 13th Birthday and it would seem
appropriate that both organizations have a common age band for youth pullers.
It could therefore be said that 15 is the most
appropriate age, however experience gained from GENSB and many other sports where
youth partake, 13 would seem a realistic age when considering such fact that
Tug of War is not a contact sport.
Mr Ray Fay smith spoke on the proposal.
On
a vote failed: 4 in favor 8 against 4
abstained
ADDITIONAL PROPOSAL BY THE EXCO &
ACCEPTED BY CONRESS
The president asked the congress if
there was any objection to act upon the additional proposals submitted by the
ExCo. Being none the proposals were dealt with.
5.
Proposed by the TWIF ExCo: Seconded bySouth
Africa
To alter the wording the
of the Anchor’s Position, Rule 13:
The Anchor is allowed
to keep the rope below the level of the protective clothing and contact with
the belt for safety considerations will not constitute a lock.
On a vote passed unanimously
6.
Proposed by the TWIF ExCo: Seconded
bySweden
The infringement 14.3
to be listed as an indoor and outdoor infringement:
Side-stepping:
Stepping outside the pulling track, lane or surface to gain an unfair
advantage.
On a vote passed: 15 in favor 1 against
Ø Vote counting criteria: President McKeever announced that
the vote taken last year at Congress (2013) with regard to the championship
fees: The abstentions were counted as no votes which was wrong and the proposal
should have passed 8 to 4. This followed a ruling given by the TWIF Legal
Adviser.
Questions
1. Netherlands: Who is responsible for the wellbeing of a World, European Championship? TWIF ExCo, the country who organizes? What if things go wrong at WC or EC? Who takes the decision or responsibility?
President
McKeever stated the decision making process
at a championships is as follows, TWIF appoints officials, Controller, Chief
Judge, Referee, Judges and Recorders.
The first person
to make a decision is the centre judge, and then the chief judge and then the
referee. And if the problem still persists the Controller, Chief Judge and
Referee take joint decision. All officials are appointed according to their
expertise.
Mrs. Langeveld
from the Netherlands stated that it is important that other countries tender
for championships such as the Asian countries.
The president
agreed and stated TWIF has tried for some years to get a championship in one of
the Asian countries.
Seminar
points: Mrs. Langeveld asked the other countries to think about the points
listed below.
If there is only one tender for a championship, how are we going to deal
in future with this item?
What is the
value of a report of a championship if a country has scored low in previous ones
and want to organise a championship again?
How can we connect countries with each other?
Strong countries help weak countries?
How can we communicate better to get more countries in future to our
championships?
For the organiser’s
manual: More space in dug-outs for
countries with national teams in all the weight classes.
Attachment (B)
Presidents Report
REPORT FOR CONGRESS, NORTHERN
IRELAND, 2014, BY THE PRESIDENT.
The TWIF Executive met on two occasions since last Congress, at the
European Championships in Netherlands and at the World Indoors in Ireland. We are also due to meet again in Belfast
prior to the 2014 Congress.
Some matters of interest which arose during the year are covered as
follows;
GENSB
Discussions have continued with GENSB representatives, most recently at
Castlebar, and it is hoped that the progress made on that occasion will form
the basis for agreement later this year.
That being the case our intention would be to commence our collaboration
with effect from the GENSB competition in 2015.
DEVELOPMENT.
We have been very active in this area of work in recent years. In May 2013 John Webb from the England
association assisted me in conducting a training and development course in
Bangkok, Thailand. This was attended by well in excess of 100 people from 9 Asian
countries and was deemed to be very successful by those in attendance. I must
also record a vote of appreciation to President Rawipas and the hosting
organisation for their hospitality during our stay in their country. It is a matter of regret that the Asian
Championships which were due to take place in the latter part of 2013 had to be
postponed because of civil unrest in the area.
I am very conscious of the need for further work in South America. It would be most unfortunate if our sport was
to diminish after the effort leading up to World Games had passed. I have
written to our contacts in Colombia and am waiting for a response at this time.
It had been hoped to hold a training course in Russia last year but that
failed to materialise because of problems on their side.
I also want to highlight the work done by South Africa and Latvia in
helping to develop tug of war in Africa and Eastern Europe respectively. I will say more about that later in the
Congress.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES.
We have in excess of 20 countries which are also members of the
Commonwealth. After the Olympics and the
FIFA World Cup the Commonwealth Games are the third largest sporting event in
the world. I have had discussions and
meetings with their governing federation (CGF) over several years. A review of
their sports programme is currently underway and I recently met with one
Commonwealth country which is very supportive of our inclusion in the Games. I
have asked our relevant membership to support our case and am still awaiting further
information from the CGF.
SPORTACCORD CONVENTION, SAINT
PETERSBURG, RUSSIA, MAY 26 TO 31, 2013.
I will attempt to provide a relatively
succinct outline of some of the meetings and developments which are of both
general and specific interest to tug of war.
WORLD GAMES
(AGM)
There were
31 member sports in attendance.
IOC Sports
Director, Mr Christophe Dubi addressed the meeting and gave a general outline
of the position regarding Olympic participation.
The AGM was
also addressed by a representative of WADA who spoke about the forthcoming
revision of the WADA Code and code compliance generally.
Three new
sports, Muaythai, Floorball and Lacrosse made presentations and were accepted
as members. Kickboxing failed to be
accepted.
After Cali,
inclusion in future World Games will be decided as follows;
1/ after a
detailed evaluation by each IF and IWGA.
2/ a
questionnaire will also be issued to all members asking which specific
disciplines we wish to include.
3/ opinions
and comments will be sought from WADA and media partners, as well as the 2017
host city (WROCLAW), in Poland.
The bidding
process for the 2021 games is to be updated.
----------------------------------------------
ASSOCIATION OF RECOGNISED INTERNATIONAL SPORTS FEDERATIONS
(ARISF) AGM.
All 33 members were in attendance which was
relatively unique in recent history.
Christophe Dubi, Sports Director, IOC addressed
the assembly as he had done earlier at the IWGA meeting. Once again he reported on developments with
future Olympic Games and indicated that a questionnaire would be sent out to
all ARISF members in 2015 when there would be a review of the programme.
David Howman of WADA dealt with the code
review. A model set of rules were to be
issued to all IF’s at about the end of 2013.
As a result our TWIF anti-doping rules may need to be amended. The new
rules will include stiffer penalties for more serious offences, e.g. there will
be a four year ban for those. The
Statute of Limitations will also be increased to 10 years.
ELECTION OF ARISF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
New President ( to replace Jan Francoo) ---------------------Rafael Chiulli (power
boating).
New Vice President
----------------------Fernando Aguerre (surfing).
There is some talk from various quarters of
trying to persuade the IOC to reduce the number of disciplines within the
Olympic Summer Sports to make room for other sports not currently on the
programme. The IOC has not mentioned this
aspect specifically and I think it will be a difficult battle to win in the
short term.
MEETING WITH WADA.
I met laetitia Zumbrunner who is the
International relations manager for WADA.
We spoke for about one hour and it was a very fruitful meeting.
She began by asking how many athletes are in
our Registered testing Pool and I replied that there must be about 150. She
expressed great surprise at that figure and when I asked her why, she replied
that our RTP should contain approximately the same number of athletes as the
number of athletes we test “out of competition” each year – which, of course,
is 12. The reason is that all our Pool
athletes should be tested each year and how are we going to do that with our high
RTP numbers !! We discussed this matter
at length and how a sizeable reduction could be achieved but basically that is
down to us. I was more than somewhat surprised by this information but it is
very welcome in my opinion as it will reduce
the amount of administration considerably, particularly in respect of
gathering “whereabouts” information. Of
course she stated again that the latter should be completed and updated by the
athletes themselves wherever possible but I stressed that this is difficult to
achieve.
She touched upon the subject of the “Athlete
Biological Passport” which will be available to IF’s over the next year or so.
This procedure, as envisaged at present, will show irregularities over the
testing period in respect of steroids, the latter being a more serious offence. As I understand, it will display variations
in all individual testing results, including negatives, and point out issues which we might wish to
investigate further in more depth. Laetitia will email me with any information
she considers relevant and stressed her willingness to be of assistance at any
time. This is an excellent contact as
she is very pleasant and helpful.
INSIDE THE GAMES.
This is a company based near Milton Keynes in
England and I have received regular electronic news bulletins from them for
some time. They have 15,000 subscribers on a daily basis and one million
visitors to their website per month worldwide.
They also produce print publications occasionally such as for the
Sportaccord conference. The current
publication is very well written, colourful and runs to over 50 pages with the
latest news about various sports. Its
main focus is on Olympic sports but they are very happy to include articles
from TWIF if they are deemed to be news – worthy. Anything they publish for us
would be free of charge as their funding comes primarily from advertising and
sponsors. If, in the future, we consider
making a major campaign for Olympic inclusion they would assist us in compiling
that “push”. They would then negotiate an agreed fee with us but would work
within a reasonable budget. She
understood that such a campaign might be a considerable distance in the future
but their free offer would still prevail until that time, without any
obligation.
The lady I met was Dominique Gill who is the Commercial
Director for the company. I sent in a
report on the European Championships at Assen but so far nothing of that nature
has been published.
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE.
I met with Coralie Mc Connell and Christian
Wassner for almost 40 minutes. We had three basic areas of discussion, namely;
a/ Our
Olympic future
. There
was nothing new here with the situation for us still being as I explained at
Congress in Madison. The IOC Executive Board met on Wednesday and further
reduced the list of potential sports for 2020 to three. These are squash, wrestling and the combined
approach of softball/baseball. This resulted in some controversy at Sportaccord
among delegates as the only really new sport among those is squash, the others
having been dropped from the programme in recent times or, as in the case of
wrestling, recommended for exclusion only a few months ago. President Putin is a big supporter of
wrestling and visited the conference to meet with Mr Rogge and the IOC
Executive Board, supposedly regarding the 2014 Winter games which Russia is
hosting in Sochi. As far as we are concerned the only thing that might change
the situation is the ARISF suggestion that there be a reduction in the number
of disciplines within existing sports but that will certainly not happen in the
short term.
b/ Use of IOC logo and designation. Both of these will be combined as part of the
artwork which we can obtain upon request from the IOC. We discussed their use on our various
publications plus the website and letterheads. They didn’t see any problems
with this as long as we stay within the guidelines but we will still need to
submit our plans to the IOC for approval.
This has since been done but a response has not yet been received. The
fact that we don’t have a significant sponsor makes things somewhat more
straightforward ironically as that would further restrict the placing of the
logo.
c/ Spain/Basque Country. We had a detailed conversation about this
issue and the background to it. They
were aware of the overall situation but had no prior knowledge of the ruling by
the Constitutional Court of Spain. I gave them a copy of this which they agreed
to take away and refer it to the appropriate IOC Department in Lausanne. I explained that TWIF does not wish to make a
decision which had the potential to put us at odds with the IOC. Christian Wassner undertook to revert back to
me when the document and ruling had been studied. A reply has not yet been received in spite of
reminders having been sent. Tony Martin
and I have had detailed meetings with “Spanish” delegates in August 2013 in
London and more recently at the World Indoors in Ireland.
SPORTACCORD AGM.
The main thrust of this was the election of the
new President to replace Hein Verbruggen who was standing down after eight
years. There were two candidates, namely
Bernard Lapasset, President of the International Rugby Football Union and
Marius Vizer, President of Judo. The
latter had made a very determined push leading up to and during the week of the
conference. In any case it paid off as
he won the election by 52 votes to 37. Mr. Vizer’s strategy includes the desire
to set up regional offices throughout the world as well as an in-house
television production team. His main aim, however, is to establish a New United
World Championship involving all 91 Sportaccord members at the same time every
four years, possibly as early as 2017.
He intends to discuss this concept with all the sports, including
us. He already has a list of sponsors
lined up including Gazprom, the Russian Government owned energy supplier. It is not clear how his plan would work in
practice.
BRIAN
NOOK (FICS)
I had lunch with Brian one day and we had the
opportunity to discuss the continuation of our relationship with the
chiropractors. He is more than happy with the current arrangements and, of
course, they were working with IWGA in respect of Cali. He is also quite keen to expand their
services into other aspects of our sport including medical research if the
opportunity were to arise.
OTHER MATTERS OF
INTEREST.
This was the largest Sportaccord Convention
since its inception with almost 2,400 delegates in attendance from all around
the world and from every conceivable sport.
It provided me with an opportunity to meet with people and organisations
as indicated above, many of them essential to our development and well-being
plus, of course, many others of more general interest. Within the latter group
I include the Secretary General of the International School Sport Federation
with whom I had an interesting exchange of information.
I took
the opportunity to sit in on the presentations made by the three candidate
cities applying to host the 2020 Summer
Olympics, Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo.
They had 20 minutes each and they were all most professional although I
thought Tokyo was the best and received the loudest applause from the
delegates. As you know the full IOC
Session in Argentina last September awarded the 2020 Games to Tokyo.
One of the things which strikes me forcibly at
Sportaccord gatherings is the huge amount of money involved in top level sport.
On Wednesday Dr. Rogge confirmed a revenue windfall of 519 million US dollars
for the sports on the Summer Games. This is the share of the proceeds from last
year’s London Olympics and that is after every other funding organisation in GB
had their share. It had gone up from a
mere $296 million after the Beijing Games !
The next Sportaccord Convention is due to take
place from 7th to the 11th of April, 2014 at Belek, near
Antalya in Turkey. That is rather
unfortunate as it is the same time as our TWIF Congress.
Cathal McKeever.
February 26, 2014.
( C )
CONGRESS BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND 2014
TECHNICAL COMMISSION REPORT
Since the last Congress, the
Technical Commission have met on two occasions, once in Assen and once in
Castlebar, Ireland. During our very
productive meetings, at times opinions of members have been discussed in a very
strong manner, with various opinions being forward.
Some of the items discussed and
forwarded to the TWIF ExCo have been:
Ø The
Ranking System of Countries.
Ø A
suggested change of color for the Officials Dress i.e. grey dress trousers will
be changed to black dress trousers.
Ø A
suggested change of color for Time Keeper Recorders i.e. skirt or dress
trousers to be black, in line with the other Officials.
Ø A
recommendation of where in the programme, the mixed weight class should be
pulled; which worked out well in the Closed Competition in Assen.
Ø That
at all future Championships, after the morning weigh in, a short update
briefing will take place to update the Officials present at the weigh in.
Ø An
improved Evaluation Form recommended by the Technical Commission will be used
from 2015 onwards.
These are just a few of the many
items discussed, and I thank all members of the Technical Commission for their
input.
My thanks must also got to the
Secretary of the TC and her Shadow for all their hard work, not only for the
work they do with the TC but also for their commitment to organizing the
Officials not appointed for Championships, and also for ensuring both the Time
Keeper Recorders and Judges records are kept up to date. Lots of hard work behind the scenes!
( D )
DOPING REPORT
CONGRESS APRIL 2014 - BELFAST NORTHERN IRELAND
During
2013 TWIF carried out 13 OOCT.
Included
in these tests:
1 athlete from JAPAN which was unsuccessful –
due to the retirement of the athlete, +
1 positive test
The ban imposed on the three athletes from
Ireland has now been completed and they can once again participate in the sport
of tug of war. One other athlete, who
was served with a ban, has now retired from tug of war to pursue another sport.
Changes have been made to the TWIF Registered
Testing Pool (RTP). It now comprises the
Gold Medalists from World Games, Cali, 2013, with athletes from the
following: Chinese Taipei, Netherlands
and Switzerland.
For 2014 we have in the OOCT pool 26
athletes, which includes one suspended athlete.
The good news is that all tests taken in competition
in 2013 were negative.
The OOCT tests carried out by Sportaccord are
costing TWIF less than their original estimate, which is very good news.
Once again the return of the Annual Report
Forms from our Members has been very poor, even Glen sent out numerous
reminders only 16 countries
have replied, the results from those forms show countries have carried out:
In Competition - 47, Out of Competition - 44, all tests were negative.
As I say every year – our Members really must
complete their reports, as when TWIF has to report to WADA and the IOC it
reflects very badly on TWIF, as only 8 countries out of our total number have
reported back. As I have said before, even if a country has no tests to report -- a
NIL return is required.
WADA has introduced new Anti Doping Rules,
these will come into effect from1st January 2015. Therefore our existing Anti-Doping Rules
Manual will need to be updated and reprinted.
Hopefully the new manuals will be issued in Madison, USA at the World
Outdoor Championships.
( E )
Athletes
Commission
CONGRESS 2014,
BELFAST, N-Ireland - ATHLETES COMMISSION REPORT.
The
Athletes Commission (AC) has not had an opportunity to meet in full attendance
during the year 2013. I have spoken to all the members separate or we had
contact by email.
There
are enough issues to work on for the AC, but the AC also needs a lot of input
from the pullers. We can’t rely just on personal meanings of the AC members,
although they all do their very best to help with issues that arise. It would
be helpful if all our countries pay attention in their own country on the fact
that every continent has a delegate in the AC.
One
of the issues we spoke about in 2013 was music during a competition. During the
World Games we had hardly any music and also the names of pullers in the finals
were not named, which we are used to during European- and World Championships.
To stand ready for a final pull and to hear your name in a stadium is quite
special and should be the standard for the World Games as well.
Music
during competitions is a very personal opinion and we do not have an answer for
everyone but our opinion on music is as follows:
Music
creates a good atmosphere during competition but it should not be too loud.
Music can be played when teams walk on or off the field/hall but must be silent
when the competition is taking place. This should be the case for all pulls and
not only for finals and semifinals. This also assists pullers to focus and not
be distracted by music. A puller must be able to hear his judge and a team also
needs to hear sings of the judge. For semifinals and finals special music
should be used to create a special effect, as well for the pullers or for the
spectators.
Maaike
Hornstra
February
2014
( F )
World Games Report
The 2013 world Games for Tug of War was very
successful. TWIF was put in a sticky
situation with the last minute withdrawal of China ladies indoor competition.
However in the end the competition went well and was a huge success .The
competition hall was full of spectators with great enthusiasm. Jose Mora TWIF
representative and our organizer in Colombia did a great job and had full
support from the University. Jose mustered up a large number of enthusiastic
volunteers, who were very helpful.
Chinese Taipei took the gold medal and was
voted as the runner up for the top sports at the World Games. They had over 13,000 votes and the next
closest sport had a little over 3,000 votes.
540 KG Women
|
Gold
|
Chinese Taipei
|
|
Silver
|
Netherlands
|
|
Bronze
|
South Africa
|
|
4th
|
Switzerland
|
|
5th
|
Germany
|
The Colombian people showed up in large
numbers to learn more about the sport of Tug of War. When I arrived in Colombia
early, the South African ladies team had already met the Colombian Tug of War
people, and was training with them. It was unbelievable the atmosphere in the
hall. Following the competition the other ladies teams pitched in and worked
with the Colombians.
The men’s out door also was a huge success,
with the stand completely full with standing room only. Our teams showed the spectators what good tug
of war is all about. The outdoor tug of
war was well received and our Colombian friends who thought they may be good
enough to pull out door soon realized that there was no place for them at this
point in their development.
Results Men outdoor:
Men 640KG
|
Gold
|
Switzerland
|
|
Silver
|
Great Britain
|
|
Bronze
|
Germany
|
|
4th
|
Ireland
|
|
5th
|
Sweden
|
|
6th
|
Belgium
|
Men 700KG
|
Gold
|
Netherlands
|
|
Silver
|
Switzerland
|
|
Bronze
|
Sweden
|
|
4th
|
Ireland
|
|
5th
|
Great Britain
|
|
6th
|
Latvia
|
TWIF had 10 countries taking part from 3 continents.
The TWIF officials did a great job and worked well together.
The camaraderie during the World Games made
the world a little smaller. Many thanks to all those officials and team members
that made this a great event.
Glen Johnson
Technical Delegate World Games
Secretary General of TWIF
Seminar Schedule 2014
09.00 Friday
April 11th Introduction
09.15 First Session Under Age Competition
10.15 Break
10.45 Second
session Diet and Health Issues
11.45 Third
Session Beach Games
Updates on Future Championships:
United
States WC 2014
Northern Ireland EC
2015
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Reconvene
Updates if necessary
15.00 Tour
Congress Schedule
08.30 Saturday April 12th Registration of Representatives
09.00 Starting
of Congress
10.30-
10.45 Break
13.00 Lunch
15.30 Break
