Dear State Members,

Following is a summary of decisions made by the AWF Board of Directors at its meeting on 27 February 2019, and other pertinent information. Please distribute this circular through your network.

High Performance Program

The Board of Directors has accepted a draft High Performance Plan and appointed the new AWF High Performance Commission to refine the Plan and direct its implementation. The AWF High Performance Commission (HPC) is: Lyn Jones (Chair), Luke Borreggine, Greg Haff, Julian Jones, Robert Mitchell, Angela Wydall. The HPC also includes the AWF President and AWF CEO, ex officio. The first meeting of the AWF HPC will be held on 24^th March. The final draft of the AWF High Performance Plan will be available to members in due course.

2019 Junior World Championships

The Board confirmed that the athletes selected to represent Australia at the Junior World Championships would receive 100% funding support. The qualifying period for Junior World Championships selection has now ended and five junior athletes equalled or exceeded the minimum standard within the period. The five athletes, Charisma Amoe-Tarrant, Isabel Lorenzi, Sabah Chamoun, Ben Ward and Kyle Bruce, will be contacted shortly to confirm their availability. One Coach will be appointed to this team and a formal Team announcement will be made next week.

2019 National Senior Championships

The 2019 AWF National Senior Championships will be held at the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra, on 19^th & 20^th October 2019.

Australian Open

The 2019 Australian Open, originally scheduled for 22^nd – 24^th November 2019 will be cancelled. The next edition of the Australian Open will be conducted in February 2020 and the AWF will seek to have the 2020 Australian Open approved by the IWF as a Bronze Level Event in the Tokyo 2020 Qualification System.

Updated AWF Events Calendar

The revised AWF events calendar is attached. There has been some confusion about the end of qualifying periods and the closing date for entries. In this version, the qualifying periods and entry dates are clearly separated. The Athlete Whereabouts Information periods for IWF events are also highlighted.

Signup Schedule

Signup Schedule is an online tool that helps event organisers to recruit volunteers; and allows volunteers to choose their roles and time commitment. Signup Schedule is free and it has been used by at least one State Weightlifting Association and a number of Clubs, with success. For more information, go to: https://signupschedule.com/

Arafura Games

150 lifters from 18 countries entered the 2019 Arafura Games Weightlifting competition. The Preliminary Entries are currently being reviewed by the IWF to ensure that all entrants are compliant with the anti-doping rules (athlete whereabouts). As soon as the approved Preliminary Entry list is received from the IWF, it will be widely circulated and published on the AWF website and other media platforms. The preliminary competition schedule has been revised to accommodate large numbers of entrants in some categories. The schedule below is still subject to change after the Verification of Final Entries and while it is possible that the times may change, bodyweight categories won’t be moved to a different day. When making travel arrangements, athletes should always consider the possibility that they will be notified to provide a sample for doping control and allow plenty of time to complete this process after their competition session.

Kind regards,
Ian Moir
AWF CEO