UCI Recognizes New Discipline -- Federations Focus

(ATR) The International Cycling Union (UCI) and the International Festival of Extreme Sports (FISE) collaborated to create the BMX Freestyle Park World Cup as part of the FISE World Series. The BMX Freestyle Park discipline is now recognized by the UCI as a result.

The FWS brings together athletes from BMX, skateboard, mountain bike, inline skate and wakeboard to compete across the disciplines and climb the overall rankings.

The UCI worked with its partner Hurricane Action Sports to develop the new discipline.

"The integration of BMX Freestyle Park is great news for cycling and the UCI. Hurricane, our partner, will bring its renowned knowledge and skills in terms of event organization," said UCI president Brian Cookson.

UCI will feature the discipline in the planned Urban Cycling World Championships set to take place in 2017. The championships would include BMX Freestyle Park, Cross Country Mountain Bike Eliminator (XCE) and Trials.

"The UCI will bring the discipline high-level recognition and will keep pushing to develop the sport while answering a great demand from BMX fans," says Cookson. "With this initiative, BMX Freestyle Park and cycling are reaching a new milestone in their pursuit of worldwide recognition."

"This collaboration will allow the acceleration of the development of freestyle disciplines and we are proud to contribute, along with UCI, to this new step in the BMX evolution," says chief executive officer of Hurricane Action Sports Hervé André-Benoit.

IAAF Indoor Tour Expanding

The International Association of Athletics Federations World Indoor Tour will add one meet each of the next two years in an effort to promote the indoor disciplines.

The World Indoor Tour began in 2016 with four meets taking place in Karlsruhe, Germany, Boston, U.S., Stockholm, Sweden and Glasgow, Scotland. The tour began on Feb. 6 and came to a close on Feb. 20.

In 2017 the tour will include five meets with a competition in Dusseldorf, Germany added to the schedule. The 2018 edition will include another non-European meet, bringing the total number of meets to six.

"The introduction of the IAAF World Indoor Tour is an important addition to the promotion of athletics," says IAAF president Sebastian Coe. "The winter track season now has a structure which cements the best invitational indoor track meets together and links them directly to the IAAF World Indoor Championships. It’s a model which is easily understandable for athletes, media and fans alike."

The indoor tour uses a points and prize money system with $20,000 awarded to the winner of each event. A victory during the indoor tour also grants athletes a wild card entry into the IAAF World Indoor Championships.

Infantino Visits South America with Football Legends

Gianni Infantino personally invited a couple of football greats to join him on his inaugural trip to South America as FIFA president.

World Cup winner Cafu and former Spain and Real Madrid captain Fernando Hierro were with Infantino when he met with Uruguay FA (UAF) president Wilmar Valdez in Montevideo on Tuesday.

According to FIFA, Uruguay's interest in hosting the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2018 was among the topics discussed between Infantino and Valdez.

Infantino attended Uruguay’s World Cup qualifying match against Peru at the Centenario Stadium on Tuesday night.

The new FIFA boss then met with the Uruguay President Tabare Vazquez on Wednesday.

Infantino's South American tour, which began in Paraguay on Monday, also includes visits to Bolivia and Colombia.

Last week, Infantino visited Africa with stops in South Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Gabon.

Bach to Open World Curling Champs

IOC president Thomas Bach will deliver the ceremonial first stone at the men’s World Curling Championships that get underway April 2 in Basel, Switzerland.

The 2016 edition of the event also commemorates the World Curling Federation’s 50th anniversary. Delegates from each of the 54 member associations will attend a banquet on April 1 along with Bach as the guest of honor. WCF president Kate Caithness and the rest of the WCF executive board will host the banquet.

"It is an honor to have the President of the International Olympic Committee with us in Switzerland as we begin our 50th anniversary celebrations," said Caithness. "We have seen curling progress within new markets in the Pacific-Asia region, where the next two Olympic Winter Games will be held [PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018 and Beijing, China in 2022], Europe and the Americas."

The WCF is creating a commemorative book to document the federation’s 50th anniversary that it will release at the end of the year.

The men’s world championships draw to a close on April 10.

Written by Kevin Nutley and Gerard Farek

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