(ATR) Incumbent International Table Tennis Federation president Thomas Weikert begins his second and what he told Around the Rings is his final term as the federation's leader.
Weikert was re-elected president over his competitor Jean-Michel Saive in a drawn-out voting process that spanned more than four hours during the federation’s Annual General Assembly.
"Thank you to all the National Associations for their confidence in me to continue as President," Weikert said in a statement. "I promise to keep giving my best to push the sport to new heights and achieve all my goals stated in my manifesto."
Both candidates were given 10 minutes to state their cases to the ITTF assembly before the manual vote began. Weikert ultimately earned 118 votes to Saive’s 90.
The election was held in the midst of the Liebherr 2017 Table Tennis World Championships also in Dusseldorf.
Weikert is the first elected leader of the ITTF since his predecessor Adham Sharara in 2013. Weikert replaced Sharara in 2014 and will remain president through the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. While the ITTF does not have term limits, Weikert believes change is needed periodically.
"From a personal point of view, if you serve two terms that means eight years," Weikert told ATR Editor Ed Hula on ATRadio. "And it’s a good thing in terms of good governance to change something. If I’m elected I guess I will not stay longer than 2021."
The ITTF chief, now 55 years old, ran on a platform of grassroots development and leveraged his experience with table tennis administration over the past 25 years. His opponent Saive ran pushing a manifesto that highlighted his athletic career and how he would put athletes at the forefront of the ITTF’s decision-making.
The ITTF also held elections for its eight vice presidential positions. The eight of 14 candidates supported by Weikert were chosen: Shi Zhihao of China, Petra Sörling of Sweden, Masahiro Maehara of Japan, Nestor Tenca of Argentina, Bruce Burton of Canada, James Morris of New Zealand, Alaa Meshref of Egypt and Khalil Al-Mohannadi of Qatar.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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