May 6, 2020: In alignment with the announcement that The Association For International Sport for All (TAFISA) has chosen to postpone their World Sport for All Games until June 18-24 2021 in Lisbon, Portugal, the 2020 International Functional Fitness Federation Masters’ World Championships will also be postponed until this date. Below are several important details about the postponement and how it will affect the 2020 and 2021 season for Masters’ Athletes:
- The only Masters’ World Championships event in 2021 will be the June Masters’ World Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. We will NOT add a second Masters’ World Championships to the calendar for 2021.
- In order to decrease any potential lose of athletic opportunity for the athletes resulting from having no live Masters’ event in 2020 and only 1 live event in 2021, each country will be given to 2 additional entries in each age category. This means each country will have a total of 5 spots in each age category for Masters’ Worlds in Portugal in June 2021.
- Countries that have already selected athletes for the event in Portugal are required to honor those selections and allow those athletes to retain their spots for June 2021.
- However, if countries have already selected athletes for the event there is the potential for an issue to arise where some of these athletes will “age up” to the next age category in 2021 (i.e. they qualified in a younger age category but will be in an older category for 2021). To address this issue, the iF3 is instituting the following rule:
- All athletes will compete in Portugal in the age division that corresponds to their age as of December 31, 2021.
- There is a possibility of a very rare situation where multiple athletes age up and this would put a country over the 5 entries per age category limit. If this situation occurs we will work with each National Federation on an individual basis to make sure athletes are not deprived of competitive opportunities.
- The iF3 is suggesting that countries that have not held their qualifiers yet instruct athletes to complete qualifiers in the age group they will be in based on how old they will be on December 31, 2021 in order to minimize the “aging up” issue.
Athletes should directly contact their National Federation to learn more about the qualifying process to Worlds for their country.
The iF3 is also exploring the possibility of running an online international event for Masters’ in the Fall of 2020 where the winning athlete in each age bracket can win an additional entry in that age bracket for their country to Portugal in 2021. More information about the possibility of this event will be made available shortly.
iF3 President Gretchen Kittelberger commented, “While of course we are sad to have to postpone Masters’ Worlds, we are grateful to TAFISA for making a choice that keeps not only the athletes’ health and safety in mind, but also still allows the athletes the opportunity to participate. We look forward to welcoming an even bigger number of Masters’ athletes to Portugal in June of 2021 for a great competition.”
