Italy to host 2016 Inas World Indoor Athletics Championships

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FISDIR – the Italian Federation of Sports for Intellectual and Relational Disabled – and World Intellectual Impairment Sport – the International Federation for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability – are proud to announce that the 2016 Inas World Indoor Athletics Championships will take place in Ancona, Italy.

With the local support of Anthropos, one of the 350 team affiliates to FISDIR, Italy will host the prestigious event from 11th to 13th March 2016. The event will take place in the Ancona Palaindoor, the number one indoor athletics complex in Italy. The World Championships will have support from the Marche Region, the Ancona District, the Ancona City and from the Italian Paralympic Committee.

More than 100 athletes will compete in the Championships with Portugal looking to build on their success of eight golds and 25 medals in total at the 2015 European Championships with some more strong performances. They are likely to face tough competition from Poland though who finished top of the 2014 World Championship medal table, in addition to strong teams from France and Russia.

Nelio Piermattei, a member of the local organizing committee and FISDIR Governing Board member said of winning the candidature: “After the success of hosting the 2005 European Championships, Ancona is ready to organize another important event such as the 2016 Inas World Athletic Indoor Championships. The event will be a great opportunity to support the development of sports for intellectually disabled and the spread of the Paralympic culture of integration and socialization. Our thanks goes to the Inas Governing Board for giving us this opportunity, I’m sure that Italy is ready to face this important challenge”.

Nick Parr, Inas Executive Director said “Italy have been great supporters of the Inas sports programme for many years now and with proven success at delivering events, we are excited to be able to award the event to FISDIR. The 2014 World Championships saw 12 different nations winning medals, with the 2016 event looking set to be just as competitive.”