MONACO: Jakob Larsen, the man who led the organising committee behind the World Athletics Cross Country course in Aarhus, Denmark, last year, has been appointed director of Competition and Events for World Athletics.
Following a worldwide search which began at the end of last year, the 50-year old Danish national was selected from a 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.
“Jakob’s background in running high-performance programmes, coaching, developing schools’ tournaments and scientific research gives him a unique perspective on our sport from the playground to the podium. We are delighted to welcome him to his new role at a time when we are focussing on our global calendar, defining our core product and expanding our one-day meetings. Jakob will be a real asset.”
Larsen will take up his position in early April and will be based at World Athletics head office here.
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. Its aim is to create a 3-4 year long-term, constantly updated global calendar to make the competition schedule across the globe easier to understand and follow for all stakeholders.
