During the third day of the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Malaga, the three candidates who will run for President of World Masters Athletics were presented.
Margit Jungmann of Germany, Vesa Lappalainen of Finland and Gary Snyder of the USA.
In his presentation Lappalainen told the audience that he has three goals he wishes to accomplish if he should be elected president for the next four years. First he believes that World Masters Athletics must look beyond 2020. The organization must take steps into the future, among them trying to reduce the number of days of organizing the championships.
He also want to professionalize the WMA by having a closer connection with the IAAF.
-I want a better government – this means democracy, Lappalainen told the audience.
– I want to do this. I´m a athlete, Gary Snyder said as he entered the podium.
The american has many of the same thoughts as Lappalainen about the length of todays WMA-championships. He will work together with the regions and try to help them with their demands.
Margit Jungmann is acting vice president of the WMA. She will work put the slogan «Athletics for Life». First of all she pointed out WMA must work harder on the anti doping issue. Masters athletics needs a world governing body, and her hope is to increase the number of nations in the organization.
– I feel I can do the task, but to do so I need a good team around me, she said.
The decision of who will be the next president, after Stan Perkins of Australia, will take place at the WMA GA on Saturday the 8th.
TE