Riga (ck) - At the 60th FIL congress in Riga, held on June 15th and 15th, the position of the Natural Track Sport Commission Chair had to be re-elected. This had become necessary after Oliver Rowold (GER) had resigned from this position earlier this year. In the vote Gennady Rodionov (RUS) won over Bryan Jones (CAN). Rodionov will hold the position for two years, until the next scheduled election at the FIL congress 2014. One of the first tasks for the sport commission will be to deal with the reformation of the natural track world cup, which has been kicked off last winter with a new race format being tested.

The FIL presidium raised the natural track discipline into "chief status" last year which was also proven by the tradional speech Secretary General Svein Romstad gave at the congress. For the first time ever the whole address was dedicated to natural track. The common goal should be to move the sport up to where it belongs. But Svein Romstad was also very clear with his words that no progress will be made without the support of all the national federations present at the congress.