FIBA Summit Preaches Togetherness -- Federation Focus

(ATR) FIBA General Secretary Patrick Baumann, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Chinese Basketball Association President Yao Ming will provide the opening keynote on the second and final day of the inaugural FIBA World Basketball Summit on Thursday.

The event in Xi’an, China, is designed to bring together all stakeholders, from National Federations to leagues and clubs as well as the media and business sectors that support the sport. The theme of the conference is "Building the Future of Basketball Together".

Among the speakers on day one on Wednesday were Craig Zanon, Global Head of Basketball at Nike, and Casey Wasserman, chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Wasserman told the crowd he is convinced that Los Angeles will provide the best possible platform for the sport in 2028. He also believes that basketball is the sport best placed to benefit from all of the current global trends.

Among the panel discussions on Wednesday was one that examined the balance between club competitions and national team competitions.

Best Photographs of 2018 to be Recognized at IAAF Athletics Awards

Professional photographers who officially covered an athletics event in 2018 have until Oct. 31 to submit their best photo to the IAAF for award consideration.

Photographers must submit one photograph by email to iaafphotoaward@iaaf.org, and include a caption, the date the photograph was taken and the image's technical information.

Entries should be no larger than 5MB.

The winner, as chosen by a panel of experts, will be revealed live on stage at the IAAF Athletics Awards in Monaco on Dec. 4. The three finalists will be invited to the Awards ceremony.

The top 25 entries will be part of a photography exhibition to be held from Dec. 1-5 alongside the awards event.

A separate prize will be awarded for the best photograph of the year taken by a fan photographer.

Entries should be submitted via Twitter between Nov. 1 and Nov. 20 by using the hashtag #IAAFPhotoOfTheYear. Only one image per entrant shall be accepted.

The three finalists in the contest for professional photographers will form the panel to determine the winner of the award for fan photographers. The winner, announced on Dec. 10, will receive travel, accommodation and tickets for two people to an IAAF Diamond League meeting of their choice.

Wrestlers Hit the Beach to Crown World Champions

More than 150 athletes from 16 countries will take part in the 11th Beach Wrestling World Championships in Muglia, Turkey this weekend.

The event, from Oct. 6-7, serves as a qualifying event for the 2019 World Beach Games in San Diego, California. It features world titles on offer in cadet, junior and senior divisions for both men and women.

Turkey is the reigning team champion in the men's competition while Romania and Turkey are expected to battle for the women’s team title.

"Beach wrestling is one of our organization’s most exciting and fastest-growing disciplines," United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic said in a statement. "The Turkish Wrestling Federation is certain to put on a great competition and we look forward to seeing our athletes compete in the sand."

Lalovic believes that the discipline will help wrestling reach millions more young wrestlers and continue growing interest in the Olympic styles as well.

"We want to see it in more countries in 2019 and are planning for a new event series to make sure that we inspire young athletes to get out and be active in our sport."

Written by Gerard Farek

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