IAAF grants provisional membership to Kosovo

BEIJING - The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has admitted the Kosovo Athletic Federation into provisional membership, the organization's executive committee said on Wednesday.

The IAAF has received and reviewed an application for IAAF membership from the Kosovo Athletic Federation. As it was determined that the application meets the requirements, "provisional IAAF membership was granted to the Kosovo Athletic Federation with full rights and obligations".

This brings the total IAAF membership to 214 national member federations.

The International Olympic Committee granted full recognition to the Kosovo Olympic Committee in December 2014.

BRANKOVIC: KOSOVO'S MEMBERSHIP IN IAAF IS ABSURD

Secretary General of the Athletics Federation of Serbia Slobodan Brankovic has said that the situation in which Kosovo was accepted as a member of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) while being rejected by the European Athletics Association (EAA) is absurd.

IAAF has admitted the Kosovo Athletic Federation into provisional membership, the organization's executive committee said on Wednesday. "An absurd thing has happened, the EAA rejected Kosovo's membership application at our insistence, but it was accepted as a member by the IAAF today," Brankovic told Tanjug.

The Athletics Federation of Serbia used every available legal means to prevent Kosovo from becoming a member of the EAA and succeeded in the end.

"Our obligation was to prevent Kosovo from becoming an EAA member and we succeeded. However, the latest decision by the IAAF allows Kosovo to compete at the world championship in Beijing this summer," Brankovic explained.

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