iMBRA WC Statement- 22.08.2016
Fellow Racers,
iMBRA is happy that so many countries are interested in hosting a World Championship, which shows the strength of the new concept that the iMBRA committee believe in. Where all of the entry money is there for the organisers to use to ensure everything is place to host an event, and the committee is there to provide as much help as possible to help with organisation and people. For 2020 we had 2 candidates to host the world championships, and we chose Italy. Here's a short explanation of why the committee made this decision.
The committee wanted to ensure that they secured a future for iMBRA and that our members would have a World Championship to go to following the 2016 World Championship in the Netherlands. The committee felt it was extremely important that the new iMBRA committee would have a future World Championship already in place.
In 2015 iMBRA received an email from Poland stating that they were interested in hosting the 2016 World Championship. When the committee received the email it had already been arranged that the 2016 World Championship would be in the Netherlands. The committee replied to Poland and explained that 2016 would be in the Netherlands and asked them if they would be interested in hosting the 2018 World Championship. After this email was sent we did not receive a reply, and at no point did anybody from Poland or the Polish iMBRA committee member say anything about Poland wishing to host the 2018 World Championship.
Erich Costa (iMBRA Vice President) announced that the French Federation would look at hosting a World Championship in 2018. The iMBRA committee was kept informed at all times and in August 2015 a statement was put on the iMBRA website stating that the 2018 World Championship would be held in France. The statement also said that the committee were actively seeking host countries for future World Championships and if anybody was interested please could they contact the committee directly.
In 2015 Navimodel the Italian Boat Racing Federation approached the committee and said that they were interested in hosting the 2020 World Championship. Ian Folkson (iMBRA President) asked them if they could wait and would consider hosting the 2022 World Championship because the committee would prefer to go further East for 2020. Navimodel agreed to wait however before the 2016 World Championship they contacted the committee and said that the lake owner from Italy wanted to fly to the World Championship in the Netherlands to see the infrastructure required. The Italian Federation needed an answer as to whether they could host the 2020 World Championship because they needed to start building a new landing stage and putting the infrastructure in place.
At this point no other country had put their name forward or made contact with the committee to say that they were interested in hosting a World Championship. The committee did not want to risk losing a venue for the 2020 World Championship and therefore gave Italy the go ahead for 2020.
Three days before the 2016 World Championship the committee received an email from the Polish Federation - FSR Polska saying that they would like to host the 2018 World Championship. Unfortunately, having received no reply to the committee’s initial email and the fact that nobody from Poland or the Polish iMBRA committee member said anything about Poland wishing to host a World Championship the committee had already committed themselves to France in 2018 and Italy in 2020.
The committee openly admit that they should have published more information on the iMBRA website but the committee were all working so hard on preparing for the 2016 World Championship that this was over looked. At the time the committee only had one country step forward for 2018 and one country step forward for 2020 and were very happy that iMBRA had a secure future.
The committee had a meeting with the Polish Federation during the World Championship in the Netherlands and discussed the possibility of Poland hosting the World Championship in 2022. Obviously it is a long way ahead and therefore Poland are unable to commit at this time. The committee agreed to keep in contact with FSR Polska and should another country come forward in the meantime the committee will contact FSR Polska first before making any decisions.
The committee would like to reiterate that they are focused on supporting Poland in the future as well as our other iMBRA members in the East, and it is the committee’s main focus is to have a World Championship in eastern Europe in 2022. If anybody is interested or has any questions, please contact the committee directly, where we will do our best to support all of our members to the best of our ability.
The new iMBRA committee will also be looking at creating a structured procedure for deciding on future World Championship venues and this will be published in due course.
The committee hope that this statement will help to explain how and why the decisions have been made so far.
Please keep an eye on the website for further information regarding the 2018 and 2020 World Championships.
Kind regards
The iMBRA Committee