XXXVII ICF ORDINARY CONGRESS Budapest – Hungary 2018
On 30th April 2018 WRF has been recognised by the the International Canoe Federation and, as an Associate Member, has been invited to the biennial ICF Ordinary Congress that took place in Budapest (Hungary) on 23rd-24th November 2018.
The WRF delegation was composed by Mr. Danilo Barmaz (WRF President), Mr. Matteo Benciolini (WRF Secretary General) and Mr. Francesco Fiorini (WRF Strategic Cooperation Manager).
The Congress has been opened by the ICF President, Mr. José Perurena, who welcomed the World Rafting Federation in front of the 66 ICF Delegations present and thanked Mr. Danilo Barmaz for the attendance.
The presidents of the Organising Committee introduced the presentations of the next Olympic Games: Mr. Toshihiko Furuya for Tokyo 2020 and Mr. Tony Estanguet, who is the ICF Vice- President, for Paris 2024.
During the reports by the ICF Executive Committee the Canoe Federations gave several inputs about rafting. At first ICF President Perurena explained the structure of the Memorandum of Understanding between International Canoe Federation and World Rafting Federation to all the ICF Members: the two federations are cooperating in order to improve both the paddle sports and the river world.
After these bilateral meetings between WRF and the National Canoe Federations new countries manifested interest in the WRF project, sharing the aim of improving their national rafting organization and agonistic field: we are working in order to offer a chance to the federations to grow and a dream to their athletes, with the opportunity of a career to realize it.
"It was a great honour to be present and meet a lot of ICF Members - said Danilo Barmaz, WRF President - Our philosophy coincides exactly with ICF vision of paddlesports. There is a great synergy among us. We will keep working on the development of WorldRafting and the positioning of rafting in the paddlesport world."
Photo credit by ICF (https://www.canoeicf.com)
