09 Mar 2023

IBU Regional Meetings continued at YJWCH Shchuchinsk, KAZ

Following a hiatus over the main part of the competition season, the IBU held the third of a total of six planned IBU Regional Meetings with eight National Federations in conjunction with the YJWCH in Shchuchinsk, KAZ on 5-6 March 2023, hosted by the Kazakhstan Biathlon Union.

The interactive workshop saw the NF representatives from the Eastern European and Asian region to present their current national structures and key programs for managing and organising biathlon in their respective countries. Much of the discussion focused on sharing challenges and opportunities for growing biathlon nationally and globally.

IBU Secretary General, Max Cobb said:

We thank the Kazakhstan Biathlon Union for hosting the third IBU Regional Meeting during the first ever IBU Championships staged in the country. Combining the meeting with the IBU YJWCH also enabled the national federation representatives to attend the season highlight for their youth and junior athletes at the Olympic Ski Training Center, a brand-new venue with high-class facilities in the the district of Burabay.

To ensure the involvement of the NFs as key stakeholders in the process of reviewing the Target 26 strategic plan at its midway point, the series of IBU Regional Meetings will involve the entire membership. The goal of these meetings is to provide an opportunity for direct feedback on the first phase of Target 26, and to gain an in-depth understanding of the national sport development structures and possibilities to achieve the IBU’s strategic objective for 2030, which is to double the number of athletes, especially the youth.

Over the course of the series of Regional Meetings, the IBU seeks to identify best practices and concrete measures for supporting national infrastructure and sport development in the best possible way. The meetings started in November 2022 – the first in Copenhagen, DEN with the NFs from the Northern European region and the second in Prague, CZE with the Central Europe-East group. Three more meetings are planned for April and May 2023 in Los Angeles, USA, Sarajevo, BIH and Munich, GER.