On the shores of Saltuj river, earlier this month at the Asian Rafting Championship, the IOC member Ivo Ferriani attended the competition and awarded the continental champions during the Closing Ceremony in Shimla, India.
IOC member Ivo Ferriani is the AIOWF President since 2020 and IBSF President since 2010
Dear President, the last WRF interview a couple of years ago has been an interesting debate regarding the challenges faced by our sport and the sports world during the Pandemic period. The motto you left us with was “We have to be chameleons, not dinosaurs”. How do you see the evolution of the rafting movement over the last years?
The World Rafting Federation demonstrated not only a great vision during the past challenges, but a Good Governance that led the institutional vision to concrete results. Meetings and events, as well as the growth of national and international connections are possible thanks to people. Confrontation and clean, regular communication allowed a division, in terms of delegating, that leads to union as a result. Rafting is finally a worldwide movement and an all-round federation: WRF is moving forward on a dynamic path, just look at the local Indian movement that one year ago started a new path in agonistic field and here we are today.
RX knock out during the last day of competition
We are on Satluj, one of the great Indian rivers rising in Tibet, crossing the Himalayas and flowing and shaping the mountains of the subcontinent, together with Indus and Brahmaputra (Tsangpo).
What does it mean to be here today, celebrating the first WRF continental championship ever in Asia?
Since the WRF foundation the movement has been through an exponential growth and being here today is the proof of right pragmatic choices. This event gathered together rafters from all over Asia who maybe have already competed in international races, but not at a continental level. We have to recognise the potential that every member of the movement represents, from athletes to countries, both as identities and as viewpoints: these, with the right awareness, make each one of us a human resource in the true sense of the term. If we focus and take care of the qualities of every point of view, again with a dose of pragmatism, we are working on the common good.
I would love to congratulate every athete who trained and worked hard in order to be here today: I hope to see you at the World Champs in Argentina next year. And a great thanks to Himachal Pradesh and the Indian Rafting Foundation for the organisation of a key competition and a memorable event.
