North Korea Angling to Host Weightlifting Champs -- Federations Focus

(ATR) The hermit kingdom may soon open its doors to some of the world’s sporting community.

North Korea is reportedly in talks with the International Weightlifting Federation to host a world championship event, according to the New York Times. The country has experienced a swell of momentum in the sport after winning a dozen medals at the recent world championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

According to the IWF secretary general, the country has expressed its interest in hosting despite closing itself off to many of the world’s countries for years.

"Although they have not made an official bid, they have expressed interest in hosting a world championships," said Attila Adamfi.

"It is already their most successful sport. They have the infrastructure and the sport-specific know-how. We have visited Pyongyang, and they have great facilities and a great venue that seats about 10,000.

"There are enormous challenges to overcome, but it could happen with five years, maybe sooner."

Adamfi said hosting the senior world championships was "not realistic" and that the event would likely be a world youth or world junior championship.

Badminton Champs to Glasgow

(ATR) Glasgow, Scotland will host the 2017 World Badminton Championships.

The World Badminton Federation (BWF) executive council made the decision at a meeting in Lima, Peru.

Glasgow was bidding for the 2017 Sudirman Cup, but lost to Gold Coast, Australia. After reviewing the bid, the BWF executive council decided to award Glasgow the next available World Championship.

"It was obvious how much work and thought was invested in the bid which BadmintonScotland and Glasgow submitted," Poul-Erik Høyer, said in Lima.

"We were stunned at some of their innovative thinking and the council felt that, as we still had an option to award the World Championships, we would approach BadmintonScotland and determine if they would be interested in hosting."

Emirates Arena, a 6,000-seat venue built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, will host the championships. The arena hosted the badminton events for the Commonweatlth Games, as well as the Scottish Open Grand Prix.

"The return of the World Championships to Scotland is a major coup for BadmintonScotland and our partners, Glasgow City Council and EventScotland," Anne Smillie, BadmintonScotland chief executive, said in Lima.

"Securing this event will also provide a huge incentive for our fantastic volunteer team."

Rio Finals Time Change

Usain Bolt could be going for gold in the morning instead of Rio de Janeiro primetime.

The International Association of Athletics Federations moved thirteen Olympic events to the morning timeslot during the IAAF Council meeting in Monaco on Wednesday.

It is the first time since the 1988 Olympics that finals in athletics events will take place outside of the night slot.

Three race walks, both marathons, and eight track events will have their finals moved. The eight track events will be split evenly by gender.

The list of events moved to the morning will be released when IAAF puts out its official Rio 2016 competition schedule.

Written by Nick Devlin and Aaron Bauer

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