Italian Takes Over ISAF; Windsurfing Returns for Rio

(ATR) Carlo Croce emerges from a crowded field of candidates at the Annual Conference of the International Sailing Federation.

President of the Italian Sailing Federation since 2008 and son of Beppe Croce, ISAF president from 1969 to 1986, he takes over from Goran Petersson of Sweden, who retires after reaching ISAF’s eight-year term limit and will lose his IOC membership as a result.

Eric Tulla of Puerto Rico and David Kellett of Australia were the other candidates on the ballot for Saturday’s General Assembly, which brought the ISAF Annual Conference to a close after 10 days in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.

George Andreadis of Greece, Chris Atkins of Great Britian, Adrienne Greenwood of New Zealand, Nazli Imre of Turkey, Gary Jobson of USA, Quanhai Li of China and W Scott Perry of Uruguay were elected ISAF’s seven vice presidents out of 14 nominees.

In other business, Vietnam and Kosovo were welcomed into the family of ISAF member national authorities, the 2013 Annual Conference was awarded to Muscat, Oman, and sailing’s 10 events for Rio 2016 were confirmed.

In a complete reversal of the ISAF Council’s recent ruling to nix windsurfing in favor of kiteboarding – and its Friday decision not to revisit the controversy – simple majority ruled Saturday among the 106 nations present.

A slim 51.6 percent vote margin ensures a streak of nine straight Summer Games with men’s windsurfing and six with women’s.

The other nine events approved for Rio are men’s Laser, women’s Laser Radial, men’s Finn, men’s 49er, women’s 49erFX, men’s 470, women’s 470 and the Nacra 17 as a mixed multihull.

Written by Matthew Grayson

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