Visiting Bosnia and Herzegovina for the first time, the European Athletics Development Commission met last weekend in Sarajevo, where, in addition to its usual wide-ranging agenda, it received a special presentation from members of the European Athletics Young Leaders Community about a schools athletics project they had designed and delivered.
Elmir Ceremagic, Edhem Barjic and their former university lecturer Vahida Kozic described how they worked with a team of volunteers and improvised equipment to stage activities based on the IAAF Kids Athletics concept engaging hundreds of children in 11 schools across Sarajevo, emphasising that the project was delivered with no budget.
Their presentation was similar to the one that Elmir and Edhem gave in a workshop at the European Athletics-UNESCO Young Leaders Forum in Zurich during last month’s European Athletics Championships. Their project has been successfully replicated by a separate team in the Bosnian city of Tuzla.
In the formal part of the meeting, the Commission, chaired by European Athletics Vice President Jean Gracia, received a number of reports including one from the Education Commission, the discussion of which led to an agreement on a draft programme of educational measures for 2015 that will be forwarded to the Executive Board and Council for approval.
Much of the time available was devoted to discussions of measures to assist Member Federations with the development and delivery of health-oriented programmes intended to strengthen the relevance of athletics in people's lives and in society.
Other topics addressed included support for high-performance, European Athletics awards, the Road Race Quality and Safety Standards system, youth athletics and the Green Inspiration sustainability project.
The Commission’s role is to advise the Executive Board and Council on matters related to the development of the sport and make relevant proposals.
Normally meeting two times per year, once in the spring and once the autumn, the Commission’s next meeting will take place in Budapest in March 2015.
For more information on the project presented click here.