President Diack signs a schools athletics convention with government ministries in Tahiti

At the end of last week while on an historic visit to the island of Tahiti, IAAF President Lamine Diack signed a convention with two government ministries to promote the development of athletics in schools.

President Diack is currently on an official tour of Oceania which began in the middle of January with his visit to the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, and will later include a visit to Australia’s Gold Coast where he’ll attend the Oceania Athletics Association Council Meeting and the 10th Election Congress of the Oceania Athletics Association.

Last week he was warmly welcomed in Tahiti, becoming the first leader of an international sports federation to meet with a Tahitian Polynesian Federation in Tahiti. During the visit President Diack was in Punaruu to observe a Kids’ Athletics competition, and last Friday (28) visited the newly renovated Pater stadium and the office of the Federation where he signed a convention between the IAAF, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sport and the Athletics Federation of French Polynesia (FAPF), to establish the ‘Kids in Primary Schools Athletics Polynesia programme’.

The term of the agreement is for five years and sets out to strengthen the technical and teaching officials’ education and training, to improve the conditions of participation and training in schools, and to implement the IAAF Kids’ Athletics Programme. The groups being specifically targeted are teacher trainers, primary school teachers and pupils.

The objectives of the convention are to be focussed on primary schools and youth centres in French Polynesia, and will in particular help to support training courses conducted by IAAF lecturers.

IAAF