Athletics Kenya Boss Jackson Tuwei was unsuccessful in his bid to be elected as one of the four vice presidents of the International Associations of Athletics Federation (IAAF).
The Athletics Kenya president was also interested in being an IAAF council member too but he was unsuccesful in his quest. Tuwei finished sixth in the vice presidential race polling 62 votes, nine behind third-placed Al Saud.
Tuwei, the Sports, Art and Social Development Fund board Chairman is also the president of the East African Athletics Region and senior vice president of Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA).
Britain’s Sebastian Coe was re-elected unopposed as president of the IAAF for a second term. 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 a unanimous vote of the 203 delegates attending the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Congress in Doha.
Tuwei’s predecessor Isaiah Kiplagat also tried to get one of the vice-presidential positions but was not succesful. The current Athletics president was aiming to achieve past his predecessor.
Tuwei was vying with eleven candidates for four vice presidency slots. However, among the four positions, one is reserved for a women representative. The AK boss was aiming for the three remaining slots.
This happens as the Kenyan athletics team is preparing for the 2019 World Athletics Championships to be staged in Doha, Qatar. The yearly event is set to kick off on Friday.
The first batch of the Kenyan team left the country on Monday ahead of the Doha Championships. The departure was however dimmed by allegations of doping against Kenyan runners ahead of the event, claims that Athletics Kenya dismissed.
In response to the allegations made by a German Public Broadcaster; AK dared the broadcaster to prove the claims so as to enable it to take action against the accused. The Federation also stated that it is only the Anti-Doping Association of Kenya, ADAK, which carries out tests and not AK.
Team Kenya
Kenyan 400m Team: Alphas Kishoyian, Emmanuel Korir (men). Hellen Syombua, Mary Moraa (women).
Kenyan 800m team: Ngéno Kipng’etich, Emmanuel Korir, Ferguson Rotich (Men). Eunice Sum, Jackline Wambui (women).
Team Kenya 1,500m: Timothy Cheruiyot, Ronald Kwemoi, George Manang’oi. Faith Chepng’etich, Winnie Chebet
