Aims and Purposes of the ACU
- ACU is the national governing body that supports, promotes and manages ultra running in Canada, including trail, track and road running.
- ACU is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization serving the Canadian ultramarathon community.
- ACU is the national member federation of the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU).
- ACU has an affiliation with Athletics Canada (AC) for the collaborative support of ultradistance trail runners for national and world championship (WC) events, which are now co-managed by IAU and World Athletics (due to the combination of mountain and ultradistance trail events at the WC level).
- Membership in the ACU is open to everyone. It is made up of individual members from all across Canada and expats around the world.
The purpose of ACU is to promote, encourage, and develop increased awareness and participation in ultramarathons and to support the development of world-level performance at IAU World Championships.
L'ACU est l'organisme administratif chargé de gérer et de promouvoir le sport de l'ultramarathon au Canada, y compris la course en sentier, la course sur piste et la course sur route. Son objectif est la poursuite du leadership, du développement et de la concurrence qui assure une performance de premier ordre. L'ACU a pour mandat de développer les coureurs à travers le Canada dans un large éventail d'évènements incluant 50km, 100km en 24h et autres ultra distances en vue de rencontrer les normes de qualification pour participer aux évènements mondiaux sanctionés par L’IAU sous les auspices de L'WA.
ACU has the mandate of developing runners across Canada in a large range of events including 50km, 100 km, 24hr and other ultra distances, in order for them to meet the qualifying standards to participate in world ultradistance events sanctioned by the IAU under the auspice of WA.
In order to meet its aims and purposes, the Association is the "national voice" for ultrarunning in Canada and it seeks to:
- collaborate with other athletic associations and international federations
- recognize athletic achievements and contributions to ultrarunning
- promote ultramarathon events nationally
- ratify and keep records of Canadian national best performance (records) in ultra distances
- select annual National Championships events
- select National Teams for World Championships
- select the Canadian Ultra Runner of the Year (Male, Female)