(ATR) The International Weightlifting Federation releases the provisional list of candidates for the 2021 Electoral Congress.
There are 11 candidates vying for the presidency of the troubled federation, including current interim president Michael Irani. Irani, who said in October when taking the interim position that he would not be running for the fulltime job, does not have the support of his own British national federation.
There are eight other men running alongside Irani: Jinqiang Zhou of China, Pyrros Dimas of Greece, Ali Moradi of Iran, Mohammed Jalood of Iraq, Zhanat Tussupbekov of Kazakhstan, Stian Grimseth of Norway, Mohamed Yousef Al-Mana of Qatar and Nicu Vlad of Romania.
Karolina Lundahl of Finland and Ursula Papandrea of the USA are the two women in the running. Papandrea was ousted as interim president by the IWF Executive Board in October before Irani took over. She had been leading a reform process within the federation following the resignation of Tamás Aján in April amid charges of corruption, mismanagement and anti-doping deceptions during his 20 year tenure.
Al-Mana is the only one of the presidential candidates that is not running for other positions in the elections that are scheduled for March 26-27.
Zhou, Moradi, Jalood, Tussupbekov, Vlad and Papandrea are also among the 11 entries for General Secretary. Papandrea is the only woman running.
Zhou, Lundahl, Irani, Dimas, Moradi, Jalood, Tussupbekov, Grimseth, Vlad and Papandrea are also among the 17 candidates for 1st vice president.
Zhou, Lundahl, Irani, Moradi, Jalood, Tussupbekov, Grimseth, Vlad, and Papandrea are among 41 candidates for Vice President.
Zhou, Lundahl, Irani, Dimas, Moradi, Tussupbekov, Grimseth, and Papandrea are among 71 entrants for the executive board.
In announcing the provisional candidates on Feb. 9, the IWF also revealed the new interim rules for the election, which include eligibility checks for all of the candidates.
The deadline for all those running to submit the documents required under the new rules is Feb. 15.
The IWF Ethics and Disciplinary Commission will submit the final verified list of eligible candidates to the IWF Executive Board before February 22.
The IOC has been critical of the federation's lack of progress in fixing its governance and anti-doping issues.
In December, weightlifting lost four events, two for each gender, for the Paris 2024 Games. The sport now has five events per gender, with a quota of 120 athletes, compared to 196 in Tokyo (and prior to that, 260 at Rio 2016).
If the IOC continues to not be satisfied with the federation's efforts to right the ship, weightlifting could lose its place at the 2024 Olympics.
In announcing the quota reductions for Paris, IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell added "To be clear this does not confirm the place of weightlifting in the program in Paris and the IOC Executive Board continues to reserve the right to further review the place of weightlifting in Paris as things move forward".
Written by Gerard Farek
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