Volcano Transit Snarl Hits IOC, Handball, Polish NOC Funeral,SportAccord Monitors

Polish NOC Funeral Missing European Colleagues

Due to airport closures, up to 30 European national Olympic committee presidents missed the funeral of Polish Olympic Committee president Piotr Nurowski. The funeral was scheduled to take place Monday in Warsaw.

Nurowski was one of the 97 people who died April 10 in the plane crash that also killed the Polish president and other national leaders.

Patrick Hickey, European Olympic Committees and Olympic Council of Ireland president tells Around the Rings the only NOC presidents that can make the service are from Poland’s "next door neighbors" Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia and Ukraine. Airport closures aren’t a problem for them because they plan to drive to the service.

Hickey said as soon as the airports open up again, a service for Nurowski will be held in Warsaw for all EOC members.

Thomas Bach, IOC vp and president of the German NOC was asked to represent Hickey, who is stranded in Ireland.

IOC Skips London Travel

An IOC working group studying London’s preparations cancelled a trip to London Monday.

The team to be led by coordination commission chair Denis Oswald and Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli would have traveled from Geneva, where the airport closed Friday night in response to the volcano ash alert.

Instead the group conducted the meeting by teleconference.

Eruption Delays Handball Meeting

Ash from the Icelandic volcano forced the International Handball Federation to postpone its Extraordinary Congress scheduled to take place in Rome this week.

IHF President Hassan Moustafa told federation members on Sunday that the travel situation in Europe forced IHF to postpone the congress scheduled for April 23 and 24 in Rome. There were concerns that most IHF members could not make the trip to Rome to due flight cancellations.

"The decision to cancel the Congress is also due to the uncertain situation in Europe, which may remain still unchanged for the next few days," Moustafa wrote members. "The IHF was eager to organize this important event but still I care about the safety of the delegates and there is widespread concern that the delegates may seriously suffer from such conditions during their travel to the named Congress."

IHF has not announced a new date for the Congress.

The congress agenda includes agenda items which would install Moustafa as managing director, financial controller and head of marketing. The European Handball Federation opposes the changes as a power grab by Moustafa.

Investigative reporter Andrew Jennings chronicled the controversy surround Moustafa in a weekend article.Click here to read his report.

Sports Events Affected

Veracruz, Mexico will stage the final event in the Diving World Series, taking over from Sheffield, England.

Originally scheduled for April 23 and 24, the final stage will follow another event taking place in Veracruz.

Reports indicate organizers for the London Marathon are considering alternative transportation methods to get top runners to the city in time for the event next Sunday.

Champions League matches in Milan and Munich will go ahead as scheduled, but Barcelona were forced to travel to Milan by bus, a trip of more than 600 miles. French club Lyon said they would have to wait and see if the city’s airport opened up Monday before changing travel plans to Munich.

SportAccord Monitoring Travel

Organizers for the SportAccord convention in Dubai say they are monitoring the travel situation in Europe ahead of next week’s convention.

Developments will be posted at the SportAccord website, http://www.sportaccordconvention.com.

Delegates begin arriving April 25 for SportAccord, officially scheduled for April 27 to April 30.

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Written by Ed Hula III and Sam Steinberg