UK Deaf Sport took part in the productive 16th European Deaf Sport Organisation (EDSO) in Moscow, Russia from 1 to 2 June. in Moscow, Russia from 1 to 2 June.
UK Chair Philip Gerrard and fellow Trustee Jonathan Reid represented UKDS at the biennial Congress, which was attended by 33 European nations.
As EDSO facilitates European Deaf Sports Championships, a major part of the congress was given over to reviewing a revised set of regulations for such events.
The newly-formed EDSO Legal Commission (of which Philip is a member) had spent time pre-Congress to make the regulations clear and unambiguous. As a result, Congress approved the revised regulations.
UKDS Members will be particularly interested in two updates:
- Participants will need to be a member of an affiliated organisation (i.e. UKDS)
- Only representatives who are Deaf will be able to act as Technical Officers (TOs) for European Championships.
Other points of note include:
- Only audiograms approved by ICSD will be accepted
- Participants are eligible to play for the country for which they hold a passport. (Holders of more than one passport can now only transferring to a new country once).
The Congress received an informative presentation from ICSD President Craig Crowley, following the just-announced decision to confirm the 2013 Summer Deaflympics in Sofia, Bulgaria.
A short Q&A with Craig folowed, before the Congress business concluded with a special presentation from EDSO President Bjorn Roine to Russian Deaf Sports President Valery Rukhledev, to mark his 25-year association with the organisation.
Philip Gerrard summed up the Congress:
“Since UKDS was accepted to EDSO in 2006, we have attended four Congresses and in Moscow we made the most progress.“EDSO ‘housekeeping’ was sorted out early on in the sessions, enabling delegates to focus on the real business of establishing the regulations for high-quality competitions for Deaf athletes across Europe.“It was a constructive Congress and we look forward to meeting again with our European neighbours in Turkey in two years’ time”.
Keep an eye out for a new EDSO section on the UKDS website soon.
