<p>An eagerly-awaited win by local star Ajla del Ponte and Olympic 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk&rsquo;s first international appearance since 2017 were the key highlights at the 10th edition of the&nbsp;Gal&agrave; dei Castelli&nbsp;in Bellinzona, Switzerland, a&nbsp;World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze&nbsp;meeting, on Tuesday (16).</p>
<p>But perhaps the most surprising result of the evening came in the women's 800m, where Hedda Hynne took another second off her own recent Norwegian record, winning in a world-leading 1:58.10.</p>
<p>The pacemaker led the field through the first lap in a swift 57.17 with Britain's Jemma Reekie close behind, followed by Hynne and Selina Buchel. Reekie still led as they entered the home straight, but Hynne kicked to the lead, pulling Buchel and Swiss champion Lore Hoffman through too.</p>
<p>The four women all finished inside 1:59 with Hynne winning in 1:58.10, Buchel placing second in 1:58.37, Hoffman clocking 1:58.50 to become the second-fastest Swiss woman ever, and Reekie finishing fourth in 1:58.87.</p>

Gold test

Del Ponte and Hynne victorious, Van Niekerk returns to action in Bellinzona

<p>Launched in 2018, the World Athletics Air Quality project is part of a broad campaign to raise awareness about air pollution around the world and the impact it has on elite athletes and recreational runners. Across the globe, that means 1.4 billion people who run regularly and who are especially susceptible to risk from this silent killer that last year claimed more than seven million lives.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Since the project's launch, World Athletics has been working closely with a growing number of cities, sporting venues and events around the world to install a network of monitors that collect air quality data in real time, information that is critical in both assessing local air quality and in identifying the best solutions.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Combating air pollution and working to improve air quality is of the six key pillars of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/athletics-better-world/sustainability">World Athletics Sustainability Strategy</a>, a ten-year road map unveiled in April 2020 whose goals include transitioning to carbon neutrality across all of its operations and events by 2030.</p>

Launched in 2018, the World Athletics Air Quality project is part of a broad campaign

Air Quality - Athens

<p>The data suggests that the clean air in the Polish city, combined with the optimal temperature and humidity, was among the factors that contributed to the high number of personal best performances in Gdynia, which included the world record set by the women&rsquo;s winner Peres Jepchirchir.</p>
<p>As part of World Athletics&rsquo; continuing pilot programme to measure air quality at sporting venues around the world, and with the support of the local organising committee, World Athletics&rsquo; health and science department measured clinical and environmental data in Gdynia.</p>
<p>Preliminary analysis of data collected at last weekend&rsquo;s World Athletics Half Marathon Championships indicates that Gdynia has the best air quality of any major athletics event or road race measured since World Athletics&rsquo; Air Quality Project started in 2018.</p>
<p>The data suggests that the clean air in the Polish city, combined with the optimal temperature and humidity, was among the factors that contributed to the high number of personal best performances in Gdynia, which included the world record set by the women&rsquo;s winner Peres Jepchirchir.</p>
<p>As part of World Athletics&rsquo; continuing pilot programme to measure air quality at sporting venues around the world, and with the support of the local organising committee, World Athletics&rsquo; health and science department measured clinical and environmental data in Gdynia.</p>

Preliminary analysis of data collected at last weekend’s World Athletics Half Marathon Championships 

Air Quality 26 March

<p>Preliminary analysis of data collected at last weekend&rsquo;s World Athletics Half Marathon Championships indicates that Gdynia has the best air quality of any major athletics event or road race measured since World Athletics&rsquo; Air Quality Project started in 2018.</p>
<p>The data suggests that the clean air in the Polish city, combined with the optimal temperature and humidity, was among the factors that contributed to the high number of personal best performances in Gdynia, which included the world record set by the women&rsquo;s winner Peres Jepchirchir.</p>
<p>As part of World Athletics&rsquo; continuing pilot programme to measure air quality at sporting venues around the world, and with the support of the local organising committee, World Athletics&rsquo; health and science department measured clinical and environmental data in Gdynia.</p>
<p>Preliminary analysis of data collected at last weekend&rsquo;s World Athletics Half Marathon Championships indicates that Gdynia has the best air quality of any major athletics event or road race measured since World Athletics&rsquo; Air Quality Project started in 2018.</p>
<p>The data suggests that the clean air in the Polish city, combined with the optimal temperature and humidity, was among the factors that contributed to the high number of personal best performances in Gdynia, which included the world record set by the women&rsquo;s winner Peres Jepchirchir.</p>
<p>As part of World Athletics&rsquo; continuing pilot programme to measure air quality at sporting venues around the world, and with the support of the local organising committee, World Athletics&rsquo; health and science department measured clinical and environmental data in Gdynia.</p>

The data suggests that the clean air in the Polish city

Gdynia records best results of World Athletics’ Air Quality Project 26 March

Article title

Standfirst (short intro) Standfirst (short intro) Standfirst (short intro) Standfirst (short intro) Standfirst (short intro) Standfirst (short intro) 

<p>For the very first time in our history, World Athletics is reaching out to the entire international athletics community to participate in a Global Conversation and contribute insights and feedback that will shape the future direction of the sport for the next decade.</p>
<p>This year World Athletics has committed to developing a World Plan for Athletics 2022-2030 in consultation with its Member Federations and other key interest groups, including athletes, coaches, officials, fans, schools, meeting directors, partners and media.</p>
<p>The World Plan will be a key document for all involved in the sport, setting out a roadmap for the growth and development of athletics through to 2030.</p>
<p>Its purpose is to listen to the athletics community, to identify where the sport stands now throughout the world, and to establish a vision and direction for the period through to 2030, setting out how both World Athletics, its Member Federations and Area Associations, and other people involved in athletics can work together to develop and grow the sport across the world. The plan will contain clear roles and responsibilities, timelines, measurable outcomes and resource and budget implications.</p>
<h2>Global Conversation to shape the future of athletics</h2>
<p>By initiating the &lsquo;Global Conversation for the Future of Athletics&rsquo;, World Athletics wants to give everybody involved in Athletics, no matter their background, role or location, an opportunity to be heard.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Today, we are embarking on an unprecedented Global Conversation with all those who love our sport and want to have a say in its future,&rsquo;&rsquo; World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The global pandemic has highlighted the need and desire of governments and communities to keep fit and healthy. Athletics, as the most accessible and participated sport on the planet has a key role in helping to achieve this. Through this global engagement phase, I want to hear from everyone who cares about athletics and about health and fitness. Our</p>
<p>strength as a sport lies in the diversity of our community and we need to hear the voices of our key stakeholders in all of our 214 countries and territories in order to develop a plan that fully represents our global aspirations for athletics to grow and thrive over the coming years.&rsquo;&rsquo;</p>
<p>This worldwide campaign will run for a six-week period in the form of a survey available in 12 different languages. The responses will help to give World Athletics a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and how its community envisions the present and future of the sport. Through this open stakeholder-centric project, World Athletics wants to drive a fruitful conversation by asking its people to embrace the chance to speak up and help to bring further significant and necessary changes and developments to the number one Olympic sport.</p>
<p>A draft plan will then be developed for presentation to the World Athletics Council mid-year. Once accepted, a final plan will be distributed to the Member Federations for formal approval at the biennial World Athletics Congress in November 2021.</p>
<p>The process is being overseen by the World Plan Working Group, which comprises seven Council Members, chaired by former triple jump world record-holder Willie Banks, assisted by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: center; border-radius: 5px; border: 2px solid #3ebdd8; font-size: 1.1em; padding: 8px; text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://surveyhub.deloitte.co.uk/wix/p402654971948.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Join the conversation and help us to create the future of athletics</a></strong></span></p>
<p><br />For more information about the &lsquo;Global Conversation for the Future of Athletics&rsquo;, please visit <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/conversation" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>worldathletics.org/conversation</strong></span></a> or contact <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="mailto:globalconversation@worldathletics.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">globalconversation@worldathletics.org</a></strong></span>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

For the very first time in our history, World Athletics is reaching out to the entire international athletics community to participate in a Global Conversation and contribute insights and feedback that will shape the future direction of the sport for the next decade.

World Athletics launches Global Conversation about the future of the sport 

test Data Article

Test WA-1789

test Demo Local

<p>You could say it all started with one Paul William Bettany.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Last month, the star of Marvel&rsquo;s WandaVision got fans&rsquo; attention when he started teasing a new character arriving in the MCU spinoff series that had miraculously survived online leaks, which in turn meant that Evan Peters&rsquo; &ldquo;Pietro&rdquo; Maximoff definitely wasn&rsquo;t who he was referring to.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;There is one character that has not been revealed,&rdquo; Bettany told Esquire. &ldquo;And it is very exciting. It is an actor I&rsquo;ve longed to work with all of my life. We have some amazing scenes together and I think the chemistry between us is extraordinary and fireworks on set.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The internet immediately got busy trying to work out exactly who Bettany was chatting about, and which character from Marvel Comics they could be playing. Robert De Niro as Mephisto? Keanu Reeves as Nightmare? It must be someone big and important, fans reasoned, for Bettany to tease the upcoming cameo in such a way, and his co-star Elizabeth Olsen added fuel to the fire by indicating we could be in for a &lsquo;Luke Skywalker&rsquo;-level appearance.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>As more dream casting and fan theorizing took place, WandaVision&rsquo;s potential scope became amplified. Other X-Men could return! How about alternate, multiverse versions of deceased characters?! There were endless Reddit threads discussing it. Group chats took wild turns as people had fun shooting down each other&rsquo;s ideas. Everywhere you turned, podcasts and YouTube videos were wondering what WandaVision had in store. But when the penultimate installment started streaming on Disney+ at the end of February, the towering wall of overexcitement started to crumble.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In episode 8&rsquo;s post credits scene a weaponized version of Vision was revealed to be in SWORD&rsquo;s possession, and this &lsquo;White Vision&rsquo; was once again played by Bettany. The realization that we may have all been trolled quite expertly slowly dawned on us. Was the actor Bettany had &ldquo;longed to work with&rdquo; all his life that he had &ldquo;amazing scenes&rdquo; with actually &hellip;himself? Was it Paul All Along?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ahead of the much-anticipated finale this week, WandaVision director Matt Shakman was was asked to address the possibility, and it certainly appears so.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m gonna let Paul Bettany answer that question,&rdquo; Shakman told HuffPost. &ldquo;He dug himself this hole. He can get out of it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It may well be time for fans to lower their expectations of what WandaVision will deliver in its final episode. If there are no big cameos outside of Benedict Cumberbatch&rsquo;s Doctor Strange (more on that in a moment) and no villains other than Agatha Harkness, SWORD Director Tyler Hayward and White Vision to come, Marvel has been telling a much more focused story of grief, loss, and how Wanda Maximoff would finally become the Scarlet Witch.</p>
<p>That story has been incredibly moving for the majority of viewers, but Shakman knows that those who have become too invested in how much of a domino effect the series will have on the Marvel Cinematic Universe may feel let down.</p>

Wandavision is amazing. Can't wait til Friday

You cannot read me without logging in

You're going to want to log in for this one

WA-1677 News

<p>Eliud Kipchoge and Dalilah Muhammad have been named the male and female World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2019, held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Saturday (23).</p>
<p>Kipchoge, the winner of the award last year, added to his phenomenal marathon CV in 2019. In April he captured his fourth victory at the London Marathon with a 2:02:37 course record, the third fastest performance of all time. The 35-year-old Kenyan followed up in October by blasting through the distance's two-hour barrier with a 1:59:40.2 performance at the Ineos159 Challenge in Vienna.</p>
<p>Muhammad, 29, broke the world record in the 400m hurdles twice this year, first with a 52.20 performance at the US Championships in July to eclipse a mark which had stood since 2003. Muhammad broke it again at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, clocking 52.16 in one of the championships' most eagerly-awaited finals to claim the world title for the first time. Muhammad also won world gold in the 4x400m relay and won five of her seven ra</p>
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Muhammad and Kipchoge named World Athletes of the Year

Kipchoge and Muhammad have been named the male and female World Athletes of the Year

Global chit chat

The Continental Tour Gold test

Tokyo to kick off 2021 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting series

Heritage plaque honouring the legend Irena Szewinska presented in Bydgoszcz

Test 37