Kenya’s Kiprono loses out on IAAF top seat

By AFP

DOHA

Athletics Kenya president Jackson Kiprono Tuwei on Wednesday failed in his bid to be elected as one of the four vice presidents of the International Associations of Athletics Federation (IAAF) as well as a council member.

This as Britain’s Sebastian Coe was re-elected unopposed as president of the IAAF for a second term.

Tuwei finished sixth in the vice presidency race polling 62 votes, nine behind third placed Al Saud.

Ximena Restrepo was voted as the first female vice president with the three other seats going to Sergey Bubka, Geoffrey Gardner and Nawaf Bin Mohammed Al Saud.

Coe, 62, the former Olympic and world champion middle-distance runner, was named head of the governing body of world athletics in 2015 and receives his second mandate just two days before the World Athletics Championships opens in Doha on Friday.

Coe, who took over the reins during a period of turmoil in world athletics, was re-elected by unanimous vote of the 203 delegates attending the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Congress in Doha.

Four years ago the IAAF was in chaos as a result of far reaching corruption allegations including damaging charges of links between outgoing president Lamine Diack, his influential son Papa Massata Diack, and a Russian cover-up of a state-sponsored doping conspiracy.

During his first term, Coe set up the independent Athletics Integrity Unit which serves as anti-doping watchdog dedicated to cleaning up corruption in the sport.

Coe is notably credited with tackling the issue of state-sponsored Russian doping, with the IAAF maintaining a tough stance and banning Russia from competing since November 2015.