New Candidate for AIBA President -- Federation Focus

(ATR) A third candidate has thrown his hat into the ring for International Boxing Association (AIBA) president.

Anas Al Otaiba, 44, is a member of the AIBA executive committee. He is also president of both the Asian Boxing Confederation and UAE Boxing Federation.

Al Otaiba said he decided to run "after vigorous consultations with a lot of national federations from all over the world", according to The National.

He joins Suleyman Mikayilov of Azerbaijan and Bienvenido Solano of the Dominican Republic as official candidates.

Umar Kremlev, secretary general of the Russian Boxing Federation (RBF), is expected to join the race before the November 2 deadline to enter. He told TASS on Wednesday that he has recovered from coronavirus and was being discharged from the hospital more than a week after he tested positive for Covid-19.

The interim AIBA president Mohamed Moustahsane of Morocco has not announced his intentions yet. He took over following the resignation of Uzbekistan’s Gafur Rakhimov in March 2019.

The upcoming election will be contested at a virtual Congress on December 12-13.

AIBA, which has been suspended by the IOC since 2019 for a litany of governance and ethics transgressions, must fix the issues that led to its sanction while also eliminating millions in debt that remains on its books.

World Wrestling Championships Still On

United World Wrestling isn’t giving up on holding its senior world championships in Serbia from December 12-20.

The UWW on Monday said the event in Belgrade is still on though "the evolution of the pandemic" could still force a change.

National federations are being asked to only send necessary staff to assist the athletes and to buy refundable airline tickets.

The UWW Executive Committee will meet on November 6 to make a final decision, which it says will be to either keep the event or cancel it.

USA Wrestling says it will gather information and receive input from athletes and stakeholders before deciding whether to attend the Senior World Championships.

Serbia is currently one of the few European countries to allow U.S. citizens entry.

The actions of the Wrestling Federation of Serbia this week could further complicate matters for some.

The president of the federation, Zeljko Trajkovic, made an official visit to Iran and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Wrestling Federation of Iran.

The agreement may not sit well with the UWW and the IOC, who were among many organizations and athlete groups to call for clemency in the case of the Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari. Afkari was executed by Iran last month after being convicted and given two death sentences for the murder of a security man in Shiraz during anti-government protests in 2018. Afkari’s lawyer says the death sentence was upheld despite clear evidence that Afkari was tortured to give a false confession in the case.

The execution has led to calls from some quarters for Iran to be banned from the Olympics.

WBSC Launches Integrity Unit

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)takes the next step in promoting and ensuring integrity within the organization.

TheWBSC Integrity Unit, unveiled on Wednesday, is designed to enhance fair play and transparency, protect athletes' rights and promote inclusiveness, and further enhance governance. The Unit will be chaired by WBSC Secretary General Beng Choo Low.

"As we look forward to a full competition calendar and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games next year, we are pleased to take this significant step to continue safeguarding the future of baseball and softball, and upholding the highest standards of integrity at WBSC," WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari said in a statement.

Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) President Francesco Ricci Bitti added: "This is a further confirmation that our "Good Governance" project is boosting a culture of governance improvement among our members. I welcome all activities gathered under the umbrella of the WBSC Integrity Unit, which will streamline the use resources and foster the development of a network of experts that will help all of us in our future endeavors."

New Media Chief for World Curling

Christopher Hamilton is the new Head of Media for the World Curling Federation.

He has been in the position on an interim basis since April, when Cameron McAllister left.

Hamilton has been with World Curling since 2014, primarily working on digital media development for the federation.

Now he will be in charge of World Curling’s overall communication strategy.

World Curling president Kate Caithness said Hamilton "has shown he is more than capable of leading our media team into the future and I look forward to continuing my work with him to showcase our sport to the world."

"We are in a period of difficulty for international sport, but these challenges allow us an unprecedented opportunity to form stronger bonds with the curling family and lift the profile of our sport in the lead up to Beijing 2022," Hamilton said in a statement.

Homepage photo: Asian Boxing Confederation

Written by Gerard Farek

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