Re-elected Spanish Director Advocates for 'New IWF'

(ATR) The re-elected president of the Spanish Weightlifting Federation, Constantino Iglesias, affirms that "a new IWF" is unavoidable.

Iglesias, a native of the autonomous community Castilla y León, spoke with Around the Rings shortly after winning election for a second term until 2024 against Emilio Estarlik.

Iglesias was the winner by a large margin: 48 votes in favor and 10 against and no abstention.

He has more than 50 years in weightlifting as an athlete, coach, international judge and manager.

The Spanish administrator also appears for the first time in the list of candidates for the new executive committee of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The election is scheduled for the end of March either in Istanbul , if the pandemic allows, or virtually.

Iglesias joins the critics who consider 11 candidates for the presidency of the IWF to be too many and says he feels "disgusted" because he estimates that there are names on the list that should not appear.

Iglesias also disagrees with some regulations that he hopes will be eliminated or modified during the current reform process that must culminate in the Constitutional Congress next May.

Specifically, the Spanish official refers to the rule in which doping crimes expire after 10 years.

"That doesn't make sense - he says - because if someone was sanctioned for doping, that remains for life."

Without mentioning names Iglesias seemed to refer to current administrators testing positive in their days as athletes.

His statements coincided with the IWF's announcement on Thursday of decisions to try to restore anti-doping rules and guarantee the eligibility requirements of candidates for the next elections.

Recommendations include suspension for three anti-doping rule violations in one year instead of four.

Iglesias suggested that IWF cannot shake hands with disaffiliated countries "until they fix their problems" in the fight against doping.

Last December, the greatest reduction in quotas in the Paris 2024 Olympic program was suffered by weightlifting with the IOC eliminating four events and limiting the sport to 120 athletes.

Iglesias believes it unlikely that weightlifting will be able to recover those places in the future.

"I'm not saying it's impossible, but we have to earn it," he replied.

"And it is that at the IWF we have been doing it wrong for some time.

"A new IWF must emerge, if we don't succeed, we have it badly."

He said he was proud of the anti-doping work carried out in Spain "a team does not go abroad that has not been very controlled".

Among his main challenges for this new legislature are:

- Implement modernization measures for the federal administration.

- Work to continue improving our national skills.

- Insist on supporting clubs, athletes and coaches.

- Relentless efforts to build a solid base of young athletes to feed the national team, with the ultimate goal of qualifying the largest number of athletes for the Olympic Games.

Iglesias is confident of a good Spanish performance for the Tokyo Olympics where "three or four could be close to the podium".

Alejandro Blanco, president of the Spanish Olympic Committee, stated that "no country has a weightlifting as clean as the Spanish one and that this federation represents, like others, the values ​​of federations, athletes, coaches and clubs".

Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez

For general comments or questions,click here.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.