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The World Baton Twirling Federation (WBTF) has approved an Age Determination Change for the 2015 International Cup, which will be held in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, in August 2015.

The age eligibility rule and age determination date for the 2015 International Cup is the age of the athlete on August 11, 2015!  

            (This change means that some athletes, whose birthdays fall between August 12 and December 31, will compete at a younger age than they would have under the previous age determination date of December 31.)

The age groups for the 2015 International Cup are:

The reasons for the age determination date change are explained below.

The WBTF has been working hard to welcome other baton twirling organizations in building a stronger and more uniform world baton twirling body together.  In November 2013, during a combined meeting of the WBTF and the World Federation of National Baton Twirling Associations (WFNBTA), a union to organize a worldwide umbrella organization, now known as the International Baton Twirling Federation (IBTF), was formed. (1)

With the new formation of the IBTF came the decision to host the 2015 Grand Prix at the tail end of the 2015 WBTF International Cup in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada on August 10-11 in 2015.  This competition will be the first of many new ventures as each organization works to build an alliance together. More details regarding invites to the 2015 Grand Prix will be forthcoming.

With this new competition came the obvious need for the establishment and congruence of age eligibility, age divisions, competition rules, and so forth.  Between the two organizations, there is a fairly large discrepancy in each organization’s age eligibility rule.  In the spirit of compromise, the IBTF decided that, for the 2015 Grand Prix, an athlete’s age is determined as of August 11, 2015.  This differs from the WBTF which determines the age of an athlete on December 31st of the given year of competition as one’s competitive age.  A motion requesting a change in age determination was brought to the WBTF Executive Board to adopt/follow the same age guideline for the 2015 IC Competition only.  This motion was presented to the full WBTF Board for a vote on March 14, 2014.  By a very narrow margin, the motion passed.  (See results below. (2)  This means the age eligibility rule and age determination date for the 2015 International Cup competition is the age of the athlete onAugust 11, 2015!
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1 http://www.wbtf.org/content/wbtf-and-wfnbta-form-a-union

2WBTF BOARD OF DIRECTORS – VOTE REQUIRED
MOTION # 1 – March 14, 2014
The age eligibility rule and age determination date for the 2015 International Cup will be August 11, 2015.
AGE DIVISIONS
Where age divisions apply, “age” shall be determined as the age an athlete is during the period of January 1st to August 11th in the competition year.
Therefore the rule reads:
This ruling will be effective for the 2015 International Cup only, and will be reviewed following the competition.
RESULT: MOTION PASSED
Effective – Immediately