Schenker Brings the World's to North America
Item Entered: Tuesday, March 23, 2004
For the first time in its three-year history, the IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics was hosted outside of Europe. The Canadian city of Sherbrooke, Quebec set the stage for approximately 1,400 athletes to compete in 39 track and field events from July 9-13, 2003. The young adults, aged 15 to 17, flocked from 160 countries around the globe to compete against the world’s best and for some, a shot at the Olympic dream.
Schenker once again flexed its logistics muscle as the official provider of customs, freight forwarding and material handling services. “Canada is the only country to host both the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Youth Championships,” said Peter Elek, logistics manager, Fairs and Exhibitions, Schenker Canada. “And Schenker was the official provider for both events.”
Denis Coderre, Canada’s Federal Minister of Immigration and former secretary of state for amateur sport, says that all eyes were on Sherbrooke for the duration of the Games. The Stadium of the Université de Sherbrooke, now part of the architectural legacy of the city, accommodated 10,000 spectators during the event, and over 25 hours of live broadcast was in turn transmitted to national TV networks in almost 150 countries around the world.
“The World’s Youth will put Sherbrooke on the map on an international level,” said Mr. Coderre.
A network of logistics services
As supplies for the event were originating from all corners of the globe, Schenker Canada partnered with its international network of offices to coordinate the transportation of goods to Sherbrooke.
Shipments for Adidas, official supplier of athletic apparel to the IAAF, were centralized out of Germany from various manufacturer locations around the world. Schenker’s Italian division coordinated the delivery of accreditation equipment on behalf of After, and Schenker Tokyo handled the transportation of timing equipment for Seiko in Japan. The IAAF also enlisted Schenker’s services to transport items such as flags, medals and office supplies from their head office in Monaco.
All shipments were cleared at the Quebec border by Schenker’s Canadian division and delivered to Sherbrooke, accordingly. “The strength of our organization's network has allowed us to become more involved in handling international sporting events, which in turn benefit the organizers and participants by partnering with a global logistics provider,” continued Mr. Elek. “After the World’s Youth ended, Schenker also coordinated the return shipping to the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Paris (August 23-31, 2003), once again demonstrating our unique ability to service this market.”
A legacy of sporting excellence
As one of the two Canadian cities designated by the Government of Canada to establish a National Centre of Excellence in Sports, Sherbrooke has already begun to lay the foundation for the country’s long-term sporting success.
“On Day Two of the Games, it was announced that Sherbrooke will play host to next year’s NACAC (North America, Central America and Caribbean) Athletic Association Championships,” said Karl Seyffer, project manager for Schenker Montreal. “Schenker is currently involved in preliminary discussions with the NACAC’s organizing committee.”
