(ATR) World Sailing President Kim Andersen and vice president Li Quanhai survive the first round of voting in the election that will pick a leader for the international federation for the next four years.
The two candidates were the top vote getters in a field of four, neither receiving the majority +1 total needed to win the election. Eliminated were Gerardo Seeliger of Spain and Scott Perry from Uruguay.
The World Sailing election commission which is handling the logistics and vote counting says it will not report the intermediate results. Those will be disclosed following the results of the second round on Nov. 1. The second round of voting begins Oct. 20.
Andersen, from Denmark, is seeking his second term as president. Li is the secretary general of the Chinese Yachting Association.
The elections also included voting for seven vice presidential slots with 15 candidates. The elections committee reports seven of those contenders did receive the results needed for election, thus no second round voting will be required. Announcement of the winners will be made on Nov. 1 as with the presidency.
The elections committee says 127 ballots were cast in the first round out of 147 member national associations. The number is near double the number of MNAs that participated in the 2016 annual meeting at which Andersen was elected. The increased number is a result of holding the meeting online instead of in person, allowing national associations to participate without the expense of travelling around the world.
Andersen says he has guided the federation through a rough patch of financial problems. Li says he would bring new sponsorships from Asia to World Sailing.
In this era of the corona pandemic, the election for the federation leadership is the first to be conducted virtually among the 33 sports on the program of the Summer Olympics. Boxing federation AIBA will follow in December with an election for president and voting on reforms for the federation, currently suspended by the IOC over issues of governance and finance.
Written by Ed Hula.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
