Europe Triathlon

The President of the European Triathlon Union (ETU), Renato Bertrandi, hosted a meeting of the ETU Board in Rome at CONI’s Acqua Acetosa Olympic Training Centre “Giulio Onesti” on the weekend of the 14/15th September.

Picture: The ETU Board, from left to right: Henrique Arraiolos, Eugene Kraus, Kathleen Smet, Renato Bertrandi, Dr. Sarah Springman, Alicia Garcia, Denis Jaeger and Kris Piatkowski.

During the meeting, particular focus was placed on reporting significant progress in Europe since the Extraordinary Congress in Eilat at the upcoming Continental Confederation meeting in Auckland on 23rd October, including, the highly effective budgetary restraint that will turnaround three years of losses and how the ETU plans to invest more in 2013 to achieve progress in the following areas:

• Development; particularly by partnering larger National Federations with those from the Baltic States, Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean and identifying and providing scholarship support to outstanding young athletes from these regions and those with the highest potential
• To provide new racing opportunities, such as the exciting new ETU Natura Cross Triathlon Series that will be announced for 2013 in more detail imminently
• to raise the standard of our races, in terms of delivery to the athletes, and with measures to enhance technical, medical and media aspects
• leveraging sponsorship monies that will provide value added to the LOCs
• raising the profile of the sport in Europe in the 2013 season and beyond
• developing new opportunities to achieve sustainable growth in the longer term.

A Working Group has been making progress on the new Constitution based on a Terms of Reference and clear guidance from the Executive Board members.

A draft document will be made available before Auckland for feedback by European National Federations and will be presented for adoption at an Extraordinary General Meeting planned for early 2013, in place of the former President’s meeting.

The Board is committed to transparency and good governance and, having reviewed the draft minutes from the ETU Extraordinary Congress and the ETU Congress from Eilat, agreed to publish these as a provisional record until they are formally reviewed and accepted by Congress.

The upcoming ITU Congress in Auckland was a key agenda item. The ETU Board reviewed the candidacies for President of the incumbent Ms Marisol Casado and the opposition, Mr Yu.

The Board considered the substantial progress made under the current leadership and recognised that such advances could only be achieved by acquisition, and hence intelligent investment, of resources.

The Board felt particularly that the 1st phase of international development up to the London Olympic Games had raised exposure and contributed significantly to the growth of the sport, with over 30 new member National Federations joining ITU in this Olympic cycle.

It called for the 2nd phase of development to empower and fund the Continental Confederations, and hence the National Federations, to a greater degree in the next cycle.

Unequivocal support was expressed for the European candidates from the existing ITU Board led by Marisol Casado as President, Sarah Springman as Vice President and Ria Damgren Nilsson as Board member.

A more detailed analysis will be released in due course to explain this reasoning.

All documents mentioned in this report are available to download on the ETU website here.