World Athletics Appoints Jakob Larsen as New Director of Competition and Events

Quai Antoine [Monaco], Feb 27 (ANI): Jakob Larsen has been appointed as the Director of Competition and Events for World Athletics.Larsen led the organising committee behind the innovative and challenging World Athletics Cross Country course in Aarhus, Denmark, last year.Following a worldwide search which began at the end of last year, the 50-year old Danish national was selected from a strong list of 74 candidates from more than 20 countries.Commenting on the appointment, World Athletics CEO, Jon Ridgeon said: "Jakob's skills and experience across our sport are rare and valuable. He combines incredible knowledge of athletics, having run a Member Federation, hosted world championships, one-day meetings, park and road events, with creativity and innovation which is critical to the journey we are on to grow athletics."As CEO of the Danish Athletic Federation for the last 12 years, Larsen has grown revenues by 800 per cent and transformed the organisation from a traditional national governing body to an agile project-based organisation with an innovative performance system.Commenting on his appointment, Jakob Larsen said: "This is a real honour for me. I have worked across many facets of sport over the last 25 years - from research and analysis to delivering events at all levels, coaching and running a national sports federation. Athletics is a sport I love and I am joining a world-class team operating on a global stage in the most participated sport in the world.""It is a dream come true and I am looking forward to being part of the team that creates and delivers the changes that will see athletics grow from strength to strength. With 214 Member Federations I can't think of a stronger global network to work alongside to deliver this growth," he added.Larsen will take up his position in early April and will be based in Monaco at the World Athletics head office.As part of his role, Larsen will Chair the newly-formed Global Calendar Unit. The Unit which is currently chaired by World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon has been established to lead, manage and coordinate all parts of the global athletics calendar from World to National Championships and all competitions in between. (ANI)

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