Athletics Australia President, Mark Arbib, has today confirmed the appointment of Chris ‘Rab’ Wardlaw to the Board of Directors.
“I am very excited to welcome Chris to the Board of Athletics Australia. He has been a committed member of the athletics family for many years and brings a wealth of professional and sporting experience to the Board table,” Arbib said.
“Chris joins a Board of Directors determined to see athletics, the foundation of all sports, grow and prosper in the years to come. We will in the coming months confirm the strategy and direction of the sport and are excited about what the future holds.”
Wardlaw has been enthusiastically involved in athletics across his life.
An Olympian at Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980, Wardlaw has gone on to become a renowned distance running coach. He has served as an Athletics Australia Selector, worked as part of team management for Australia’s athletics team and in more recent years been regularly involved in governance related roles with Athletics Australia.
Wardlaw is excited by the invitation and is looking forward to positively impacting the future direction of a sport he has actively serviced for more than four decades.
“It’s a terrific invitation to be involved and I am very pleased to accept. It gives me an opportunity to play a new role in a sport that I have loved engaging with over many years as an athlete, coach and administrator. This is a new challenge and I look forward to making a contribution,” Wardlaw said.
“In the immediate term, we face a most important opportunity to continue the implementation of recommendations made in recent reviews of the sport. This will ensure that athletics in Australia, continues to develop and prosper for many years to come and it will ensure that the sport remains at the forefront of the Olympic movement and Australian sporting landscape.”
Wardlaw’s appointment will see him fill the casual vacancy left by the resignation of Melissa Babbage in September 2015. He will fill her role for the remainder of her initial term, which ends in November 2016, at which time he will need to be ratified by Athletics Australia’s eight member associations.
He will sit on the Athletics Australia Board of Directors alongside President, Mark Arbib, and Vice Presidents, Jan Swinhoe and Brenda LaPorte, as well as Peter Bromley, Anne Lord, Nathan Deakes, Ben Sellenger and Geoff Nicholson.
