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AIPS DELEGATES
News from
AIPS Delegates
had welcomed Asia’s biggest sports events just a few months before, with a real “savoir-faire” and friendly volunteers up to the task to wel- come foreign delegations. The weather was of course much colder than when the whole con- tinent had gathered last August, but there was warmth in the way the local organisers had pre- pared the event with a red carpet prepared for the top World shuttlers. Symbolically during the Gala dinner prior to the competition, where the stars had dressed up to the occasion and when the Players of the Year awards were celebrated – Seo Seung Jae and An Se Young for Korea won best male and female award as expected after their tremendous year, while 3 Chinese pairs were given a prize as well – Jia/Chen as best pair, Liu/Tan as most promising pair and Jiang/Wei as most improved pair.
The red carpet atmosphere was less of a sym- bol when the competition began as the courts’ tones matched China’s lucky colour as well as the title sponsor’s logo. But it was not to be China’s clean sweep – Denmark’s Viktor Ax- elsen made sure that he would secure his fifth World Tour Finals title after another crazy year for the Dane. Even if he had lost to Shi Yuqi in the group stage, he still qualified and went on to beat his compatriot Anders Antonsen in the semi-final, before tasting sweet revenge in the Final, beating the home favourite, Shi Yuqi, 21- 11, 21-12. The 10,000 crowd had no choice but to applaud the Scandinavian, who is very much appreciated in China as he not only speaks fluent Mandarin, but also raises his daughters speaking Chinese to them. In the women’s sin- gle event, Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying was a survivor. The witty Tai came back from a 10-19 deficit in the last game of her semi-final against Korea’s An Se Young and managed to win this match before beating Spain’s former Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the final. By doing so, Tai secured a 200 000 US $ prize check – the biggest ever prize money for a tournament as the overall tournament prize money had risen to an unprecedented 2,5 millions US$. China still
AIPS Delegates Meeting
By Josef Langer - AIPS EC Member
Meeting of AIPS Sport Commission and AIPS Sport delegates in the Castle of Vigevano
“Let’s stick together to defend our profession” AIPS Delegates in Vi- gevano for the Sport Commission meeting At the meeting of the AIPS Sport
Commission and AIPS Sport Delegates in Vi- gevano (22nd to 24th October), AIPS President Gianni Merlo said that "the Sport Delegates are an important part of our organisation." The sports delegates should maintain contacts with the international federations and help to create better working conditions for journalists on the events. "It's time for a new future", the president said. All 14 sports were represented by their delegates, three of them via Zoom. However, it is not (only) a matter of increasing the number of delegates or represented sports, but - and above all - it should be journalists who also re- port on all major events and are there. The del- egates should work actively and independently, but in a responsible manner towards the AIPS, in close cooperation with the federations.
Of course, this is not new - but the time has come to develop new ideas and activities and to implement them. “It's time for a new future for the Commission and its delegates,” Merlo said. The new chairman, Josef Langer, will try to bundle the topics and proposals discussed at the meeting and to implement them in joint work between the AIPS and the delegates.
Athletics
By Marc Ventouillac - AIPS Athletics Delegate
A new “Content Creators” accredi-
tation for World Indoor At the beginning of December, the international athletics federa- tion, World Athletics, informed us (informed and not consulted) of the creation of a new accred- itation category reserved for self-proclaimed content creators on the occasion of the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow from March 1-3, 2024. “This unique category is aimed at
providing an appropriate level of access for those looking to produce entertaining and in- novative content for social media and website audiences,” wrote World Athletics in a press re- lease. This creation follows the problems which arose during the last World Championships in Budapest and were reported in the previous edition of the AIPS magazine. According to what was explained to us, it would be a test from which lessons will be learned at the end of the competition. The number of accredita- tions will be extremely limited (around five) and although their holders will have access to the press room, they will only have access to a spe- cial mixed zone separate from that of journalists and located after that of the written press.
We will contact World Athletics again at the end of this experiment and invite all colleagues present in Glasgow to come back to us to tell us (marcventouillac@aol.com) how they experi- enced this new feature.
Badminton
By Raphaël Sachetat - AIPS Badminton Delegate
China welcomes season finale in
style The city of Hangzhou hosted the HSBC BWF World Tour finals from December 13-17th for the first time, with Viktor Axelsen and Tai Tzu Ying coming out as winners in the singles’ events. There were still signs of the Asian Para Games all over the city when the badminton community set foot in Hangzhou, mid-decem- ber, for the highlight of the season – the World Tour Finals. This event is a 5 day event where only the top 8 players and pairs from the year- long HSBC World Tour qualify. And the event took place in a state-of-the-art stadium which
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