31 MARCH 2008 : APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR 2009 MIAUC’s

Dear friends,

After having turned the last pages of 2007 and after enjoying a short

turn-of-the-year holiday break, we have resumed our activities aiming at another fascinating year of ultrarunning.

Eventually we have to admit that this time it was quite a struggle to get some of our major IAU competitions (MIAUC’s) in place.

You will have noticed already the absence of the 24H European Championship and the 50 km Trophy. For the first event we didn’t receive a bid and for the latter we decided to allow a sabbatical year. The format will undergo a thorough evaluation and we hope to come back with a new proposition for 2009.

Nevertheless we nourish high expectations for the MIAUC’s which have been secured, starting with the 100 km World Cup. This event will be organised by the same group that is responsible for the marathon of Rome. This is a professional team, also acquainted with ultramarathon events, and we are trustful that the organisation will be in good hands.

For our 24H we move back to Korea where our sympathetic friends of KUMF will host this year’s edition of the World Challenge.

They have proved their organisational skills already in 2006 at the occasion of the 100 km World Cup and we are pretty confident that they will present us again with an exciting event.

The Sunmart LOC assisted us last year in a superb way to put the Trail World Challenge on the map, proving at the same time that long distance trail running deserves its place amongst the mature MIAUC’s.

Bearing in mind the outstanding level or organisation of the Sunmart Texas Trail Endurance Run, we have decided to go back to Houston, Texas for the second edition, committed to field a larger number of delegations this time.

Looking further ahead we ascertain already at this moment in time a considerable interest for our MIAUC’s for 2009.

In order to fit everything into a global agenda in which is featuring already the Commonwealth Championships in October 2009, we have decided to fix the deadline for all our 2009 MIAUC’s on the 31^st of March 2008.

In this regard we strongly recommend all the potential applicants to forward us their bidding file before the postulated date (interested partners can find the application form under the download section of the IAU website).

Kindest regards,

Dirk Strumane

IAU President