Breaking - Sharara Reelected ITTF President

(ATR) Adham Sharara will serve another four years as president of the International Table Tennis Federation.

The incumbent from Canada was reelected Wednesday in Paris, beating out Italy’s Stefano Bosi by a tally of 149 votes to 53.

"I am extremely pleased that as expected, the delegates […] understood the importance of my work and understood very clearly our future plans," Sharara said in a statement.

"The overwhelming support for my team and myself gives us extra motivation to try as hard as possible to make sure table tennis is in the top 5 sports in the world."

The ballot followed about five weeks of heated campaigning during which Bosi claimed Sharara had abused his links to both an Ottawa non-profit and to a company that provides funding to the ITTF, among other allegations.

Bosi, longtime president of the European Table Tennis Union, also called for the IOC to investigate Sharara over alleged breaches of the Olympic Charter and for the ITTF to allow candidate presentations prior to Wednesday’s vote.

Sharara denied all allegations, and both of Bosi’s requests were denied.

After four years as deputy president, Sharara assumed the presidency of the ITTF in 1999 and will serve through 2017 thanks to Wednesday’s election.

His Executive Committee for the next four years will be Shi Zhihao (CHN), Masahiro Maehara (JPN), Khalil Al-Mohannadi (QAT), Cherif Hajem (TUN), Petra Sorling (SWE), Thomas Weikert (GER), Patrick Gillmann (NCL) and Melecio Eduardo Rivera (SAL).

Other Business

Also in Paris, the Annual General Meeting confirmed Bonaire as the ITTF’s 218th member association; inducted Ma Long, Li Xiaoxia and Zhang Jike into the ITTF Hall of Fame; and awarded the 2016 World Table Tennis Championships to Kuala Lumpur as well as the 2018 edition to Halmstad, Sweden. The decision followed a deal allowing the hosting rights to be determined simultaneously "due to the high quality of both bids," which were originally for 2016.

Written by Matthew Grayson.

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