USA Track & Field (USATF) is the United States national governing body for the sports of track and field, cross country running, road running and racewalking. The USATF was known between 1979 and 1992 as The Athletics Congress (TAC) after its spin off from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which governed the sport in the US through most of the 20th century until the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 dissolved its responsibility. Based in Indianapolis, USATF is a non-profit organization with a membership of more than 130,000. The organization has three key leadership positions: CEO Max Siegel, Board of Directors Chair Steve Miller, and elected President Vin Lananna. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can be USATF members, but permanent residents can only participate in masters events in the country, per World Athletics regulations.
Masters athletics is a class of the sport of athletics for athletes of over 35 years of age. The events include track and field, road running and cross country running. Competitors are bracketed into five-year age groups. For international events the first age group is 35 to 39. Men as old as 105 and women in their 100s have competed in running, jumping and throwing events. Masters athletes are sometimes known as "veterans" and the European Masters Championships, for instance, is known as "Eurovets." This and other high level events including biennial World Championships cater largely to elite-level athletes, but many masters athletes are novices to athletics and enjoy the camaraderie offered by masters competition at the local, National and International level. Most National governing bodies for track and field hold annual Masters championships. Prestigious National meets such as the Penn Relays and the United States Olympic Trials put on exhibition events for top masters athletes. Masters athletics is growing Internationally with over 6000 athletes competing at recent World Championships. World; National and Regional records are maintained for each age group.
The Pan-American Team Handball Federation (PATHF) has been the continental governing body for handball, beach handball, wheelchair handball and snow handball in Americas since 23 May 1977. PATHF includes North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. PATHF's primary functions is to organize competitions for national teams and clubs, and to conduct Men's World Handball Championship and Women's World Handball Championship qualifying tournaments.
The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) is the apex body of athletics in Pakistan. It was formed in 1951. Major General (R) Muhammad Akram Sahi is the current President.
World Masters Athletics (WMA) is the worldwide governing body for the sport of masters athletics – which includes track and field, cross country, and road running events – as participated by people over 35 years of age.
The sports under the umbrella of athletics, particularly track and field, use a variety of statistics. In order to report that information efficiently, numerous abbreviations have grown to be common in the sport. Starting in 1948 by Bert Nelson and Cordner Nelson, Track & Field News became the leader in creating and defining abbreviations in this field. These abbreviations have also been adopted by, among others, World Athletics; the world governing body, various domestic governing bodies, the Association of Track and Field Statisticians, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, the Associated Press, and the individual media outlets who receive their reports. These abbreviations also appear in Wikipedia.
1975 World Association of Veteran Athletes Championships is the first in a series of World Outdoor Championships.
The Masters Athletics Federation of India (MAFI) is the body responsible for selecting masters athletes to represent India at the World Masters Games, Asia Masters Athletics Championships and other international Masters athletic meets and for managing the Indian teams at the events.
2015 World Masters Athletics Championships is the 21st in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Lyon, France from 4 to 16 August 2015. This was the last odd year of the biennial Championships; beginning in 2016, the Championships will be held in even-numbered years. The change was made to avoid conflict with the quadrennial World Masters Games, which had been held in odd-numbered years since 2005.
The Asia Masters Athletics Championships are the biannual championship of Asia Masters Athletics (AMA), one of six continental based regional affiliates of World Masters Athletics (WMA), known as the World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) from its formation in 1977 until 2001. WMA is the global governing body for the division of Masters athletics. It is held in opposite years from the World Masters Athletics Championships. The event also hosts the Asia Masters General Assembly, the political gathering of the AMA which selects the locations of subsequent championships.
2016 World Masters Athletics Championships is the 22nd in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Perth, Australia from 26 October to 6 November 2016. Prior to this year, the championships in this biennial series were in odd-numbered years. Beginning in 2016, the championships were held in even-numbered years. The change was made to avoid conflict with the quadrennial World Masters Games, which had been held in odd-numbered years since 2005.
2018 World Masters Athletics Championships is the 23rd in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place along the Costa del Sol in Málaga and Torremolinos, Spain from 4 to 16 September 2018. This was the second even year of this biennial series as beginning in 2016 at Perth, Australia, the Championships moved to be held in even-numbered years to avoid conflict with the quadrennial World Masters Games, which had been held in odd-numbered years since 2005.
2013 World Masters Athletics Championships is the 20th in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 16 to 27 October 2013.
2011 World Masters Athletics Championships is the nineteenth in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Sacramento, USA from 6 to 17 July 2011.
2003 World Masters Athletics Championships is the fifteenth in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Carolina, Puerto Rico, from 1 to 13 July 2003. The low participation number may be partly due to the fear of flying after the 2001 September 11 attacks and the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. This is the second time that the Championships is hosted in Puerto Rico; the fifth edition of 1983 was held in San Juan. This is the first edition of the Championships conducted after the governing body of this series was formally renamed from World Association of Veteran Athletes (WAVA) to World Masters Athletics (WMA) at the previous (2001) edition held in Brisbane, Australia,
2001 World Masters Athletics Championships is the fourteenth in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Brisbane, Australia, from 1 to 14 July 2001.
1999 World Masters Athletics Championships is the thirteenth in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Gateshead, England from 29 July to 8 August 1999. An official website was established for the first time in this series: http://www.gatesheadmbc.gov%5B%5D
2023 World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships is the ninth in a series of World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships. This ninth edition will take place in Toruń, Poland, from 25 to 31 March 2023.
2022 World Masters Athletics Championships is the 24th in a series of World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships that took place in Tampere, Finland, from 29 June to 10 July 2022.
