The Ukrainian athletics team will gather this week to conduct the final part of their preparations for the upcoming World Championships with a training camp in Slovakia.
World Athletics has announced that 40 athletes and officials will be in Banskа Bystrica ahead of the World Championships in Budapest between August 19 and 27. The camp is financed by the Ukrainian World Athletics Fund and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Solidarity Fund.
“We understand how important and inspiring Ukraine’s athletes are to their country at this terrible time, and we want to give them the opportunity to compete despite the great hardships they have suffered from this horrific war”, said the World Athletics president Sebastian Coe. “They have lost so much and the least we can do is help them keep their athletics dreams alive. I am filled with admiration for their strength and endurance and look forward to welcoming the Ukrainian team to the National Athletics Center athletics in Budapest”, added he.
World athletics has punished all Russian and Belarusian athletes since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Sebastian Coe said earlier this week that their position had not changed, despite the IOC recommending that they return to competition with a neutral flag.
Ukrainian athletes also had a funded camp before last year’s World Championships in Eugene (USA), where they won silver and bronze medals in the high jump through Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Andrii Protsenko.
World Athletics provided financial support to Ukraine with 220 thousand dollars in 2022 and provided an additional 190,000 USD this year.
