Coronavirus: Over 190 athletes benefit from World Athletics grants

21 Juin 2020

Nairobi, Kenya, June 21 (Infosplusgabon) - World Athletics on Sunday said that 193 athletes from 58 member federations will benefit from the one-time US$3,000 grants through the Athlete Welfare Fund to cushion them from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The world athletics governing body and the International Athletics Foundation (IAF) said in a press statement that the Fund will help support professional athletes experiencing financial hardship due to the pandemic.

Initially totalling US$500,000 when its creation was announced on 28 April, generous contributions since have made US$600,000 ultimately available to athletes in need.

World Athletics says the IAF received 261 eligible applications by the 31 May deadline.

The applications were evaluated by the IAF to ensure they met the eligibility criteria, under the oversight of an expert working group, chaired by World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.

To be eligible athletes had to be qualified for selection for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (by entry standard), demonstrate a justifiable welfare need through significant loss of income in 2020 compared to 2019, and must never have had an anti-doping violation.

Athletes ranked in the top six on the World Rankings, those who finished in the top six in any Gold Label Road race in 2019, and those who earned more than US$6,000 in prize money from the 2019 Diamond League were not eligible to apply in order to help focus support to those most in need.

The Foundation expects to begin making payments to athletes as early as the end of this week.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: "My thanks to all the working group members for their input throughout this process over the last two months."

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/CVX/GABON2020

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