DOSB Avoids Presidential Drama

(ATR)A revolution in German sport turns out to be a tempest in a teapot. Nothing now stands in the way of the re-election of Alfons Hörmann as President of the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB).

At a meeting at the DOSB headquarters in Frankfurt, the assembly of the top associations, which have the majority of votes at the election congress on Dec. 1 in Düsseldorf, unanimously voted for Hörmann as a candidate with two abstentions.

Thomas Weikert, President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), had previously announced he was mulling a run for the DOSB presidency against Hörmann but ultimately decided against it.

"I don't want to give up the ITTF office. The office of DOSB President is not compatible with my current one, for purely temporal reasons. That's why I refrained from running for office," said the 56-year-old lawyer. Weikert's term as ITTF President runs until 2021.

Weikert was the desired candidate of an opposition movement to Hörmann within the umbrella organizations. It is unclear whether the DOSB general meeting will find a counter-candidate to Hörmann. German Triathlon Union (DTU) President Martin Engelhardt, who did not attend the meeting on Tuesday, was a possible candidate.

The conference of the 16 state sport federations, which also have a vote on Dec. 1, had already delivered a unanimous vote for Hörmann's candidacy. After the signal from the ranks of the federations the re-election of Hörmann is now safe.

Written by Peter Kreuzer

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