Toronto wins bid to host world’s best masters athletes in 2020
Toronto won the bid to host the World Masters Athletics Championships in 2020 defeating Gothenburg, Sweden by a narrow margin.
Toronto will host the world’s best masters athletes in 2020.
Ontario’s capital won the bid to host the 2020 World Masters Athletics Championships defeating Gothenburg, Sweden’s bid on Oct. 30. Toronto first hosted the biennial WMA Championships in 1975.
The vote was held in Perth, Australia at the 2016 World Masters Athletics Championships. According to organizer Doug Smith, Toronto 2020 won the vote 69-57 over Gothenburg’s bid. The event in North America’s fourth largest city, and Canada’s largest, will be held July 20 – Aug. 1, 2020.
RELATED: Ed Whitlock runs sub-4:00 marathon at 85, in a league of his own.
The event is for athletes 35 and older and will feature track and field, cross-country, race walks and road races. The venues include Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto, the Toronto Track and Field Centre, York University Stadium, Centennial Park and Toronto Islands. Varsity Stadium will be the primary venue for the championships hosting the opening and closing ceremonies.
The last time the championships were held in North America was back in 2011 when Sacramento, Calif. acted as hosts. This past August, Vancouver hosted the inaugural Americas Masters Games.
Short promo
Canada is well-known in the world masters athletics scene, in part due to the success of 85-year-old Ed Whitlock, who recently broke the men’s 85-89 marathon world record. Whitlock is the only man over 70 to have broken the 3:00-mark in the marathon.
Torun, Poland will host the 2019 World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships.
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