Ukraine’s Sergei Bubka retained his vice presidency position of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) yesterday after a chaotic voting session, which initially had eliminated the former pole vault champion.
During a day of voting — and revoting — because of faulty and slow electronic equipment, Lamine Diack was re-elected to a new term as president of the IAAF. Since he ran unopposed, it was the only clear-cut decision, while voting on most other positions will spill over into today’s second day of the congress.
The federations at the congress voted on the second attempt to give the Senegalese a 169-29 mandate for a new term.
Bubka first seemed to be eliminated in the initial round from the panel of four vice presidents for which there were five candidates. However, after the round was annulled he survived in a second round.
Bubka moved up from fifth to fourth position to get a four-year mandate alongside Qatar’s Dahlan al-Hamad, Britain’s Sebastian Coe and Robert Hersh of the US.
Canada’s Abby Hoffman was eliminated after he tied for first in the original poll.
Diack said the impact of the global financial crisis on the sport and increasing competition from sports like baseball and soccer are among the major challenges ahead.
He told the sport’s congress ahead of Saturday’s opening of the world championships that “the challenges are tough.”
The congress heard a financial report saying that since the previous championships in Berlin two years ago, costs had to be cut by more than 20 percent, from US$67 million to US$52 million.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB