Association of Track and Field Statisticians


The Association of Track and Field Statisticians was founded in 1950. It is an international organization run by volunteers whose goal is to collect and disseminate the statistics of track and field athletics.

Yearbook

The association has published an annual yearbook since 1951. The first edition was published in Lugano, Switzerland, titled The 1951 A.T.F.S. International Athletic Annual. The editors were Fulvio Regli and Roberto Quercetani. It is an authoritative compilation of international athletics statistics and has been known as The International Athletics Annual and The ATFS Annual. It is currently published under the title of Athletics: The International Track and Field Annual and its editor is Peter Matthews.
YearsEditorsPublishers
1951–52Regli/QuercetaniTipografia "La Commerciale" S.A., Lugano
1953–55Regli/QuercetaniWorld Sports magazine, London
1956–69Roberto QuercetaniWorld Sports magazine, London
1970–72Rooney MagnussonWorld Sports magazine, London
1973–74Vladimir VisekBartels & Wernitz, West Berlin
1975–78Don PottsTrack & Field News, Los Altos, California
1979–83Nejat KökPalle Lassen, København
1984Richard HymansPalle Lassen, København
1985–90Peter MatthewsSports World, London
1991–92Peter MatthewsBurlington Publishing, London
1993–94Peter MatthewsHarmsworth Active, London
1995–2012Peter MatthewsSportsBooks, Worcester & Cheltenham

Founding members

Roberto Luigi Quercetani was one of the eleven founding members of ATFS and was also its first president, remaining in the position for 18 years. He was also the editor of the first ATFS Annual. and is a renowned historian and writer on athletics
Quercetani was born in Florence, Italy on May 3, 1922. He was interested in both foreign languages and athletics from an early age, his study in both helped by reading foreign newspapers sent by friends from Switzerland. After World War II, he served as a technical interpreter for the allied forces in Italy. Now fluent in English, French and German, he started writing articles for the foreign sporting publications Leichathletik of Germany, World Sports of the UK, and Track and Field News of the United States.
In 1948, he wrote his first athletics statistical publication.
From 1951, Quercetani started as a long-time contributor to the Italian newspapers La Gazzetta dello Sport and La Nazione.
In 1964 his first of many books on athletics was published: A World History of Track and Field Athletics 1864-1964. He has since added a number of titles that cover the history of most of the events of athletics.
In 1994, he was founder member, and president until 1998, of the Archivo Storico Dell'Atletica Italiana "Bruno Bonomelli", an Italian non-profit-making cultural association dedicated to the history of Italian athletics.
In 2010, under the chairmanship of Mel Watman, Quercetani was invited, as an acknowledged industry expert, to help write the book to celebrate the 2012 centenary of the governing body of athletics, the IAAF.
In 2012, in acknowledgement of his life's achievements, Quercetani was awarded by the IAAF the IAAF Veteran Pin, their most important award.

Executive committee members (until 2016)