On December 4, 2019, the first ever General Assembly of the International Federation of Armwrestling (IFA) took place at Hotel SPA Faltom ****, Rumia, Poland, in which 18 national representatives of IFA member countries took part.
The following issues were on the agenda of the IFA General Assembly and the following decisions were made on the development of arm wrestling in the world:
- Just for 5 months IFA organized a world-class event with 32 countries and more than 400 participants,
- IFA was included in TAFISA – an international organization for the development of sports for all, associated with the International Olympic Committee. This confirms that the world of armwrestling needs democratization and the return of the sports to athletes;
- The current IFA Directorate was voted to stand for one year more and election of the new President of the Federation and the Directorate will be held in 2020 on democratic terms as well;
- The championships in 2020 will be held:
- European Championship – Kiev (Ukraine 🇺🇦),
- Asian Championship – Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia 🇲🇾),
- World Championship – Orlando (USA 🇺🇸);
- There will be no restrictions on the number of WAC participants from one country in the weight categories in 2020;
- The age category of juniors 12-13 years old in 2020 is not yet appropriate to introduce.
Anders Aksklo, president of IFA, wrote on his Facebook page:
“ There are so many things that were a success during last week, and for me personally one of the biggest was the IFA congress. A free and open meeting with nothing to hide, discussing things that concerns armwrestling. Observers allowed in the room, the meeting chaired by Erika Ketola of the Finnish federation so I as a president would not dominate it, the board at our own request elected for one year only at this point, giving the election committee time to prepare nominations and procedures so that our members can rest assured that all will be able to nominate and participate without being blocked. Thank you all for your trust, it truly is a privilege to be part of bringing the control of the sport back to the armwrestlers. ”
In total, more than 400 participants from 32 countries took part in the World Arm Wrestling Championship 2019.