World Athletics President Sebastian Coe was elected for a third term at the 54th World Athletics Congress in Budapest on Thursday. Meanwhile, Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda’s Donna Raynor were elected to the World Athletics Council.
Ximena Restrepo was re-elected as a Vice President and will be joined by newly elected Vice Presidents Raul Chapado, Adille Sumariwalla and Jackson Tuwei.
A total of 192 voting members of Congress voted for Coe and three abstained. Under the World Athletics Constitution, this will be Coe’s final term as President.
In 2019, Restrepo, the 1992 Olympic 400m bronze medallist from Colombia, became the first woman to be elected as a World Athletics Vice President.
As part of the widespread reforms adopted by the World Athletics Congress at the end of 2016, World Athletics added minimum gender targets into its constitution to establish parity at all levels in the sport’s governance.
The reforms detailed a requirement to have 13 members of each gender elected to the World Athletics Council at the 2027 Congress. This target has been met four years earlier than the reform roadmap prescribed.
The remaining requirement to be met at the 2027 Congress is the election of two Vice Presidents of each gender.
"I’m grateful for the support of my colleagues and delighted to see that more of the commitments we made during the governance reform process in 2016 have come to fruition with the election of World Athletics’ first gender equal Council four years ahead of schedule," said Coe. "But the job is not done yet and we need to keep pushing for gender parity throughout our representative bodies. The strength of our sport is in its diversity and that should be reflected in our governance at all levels."
The newly elected members of the World Athletics Council are: Yuko Arimori (JPN), Anna Riccardi (ITA), Annette Purvis (NZL), Nawal El Moutawakel (MAR), Nan Wang (CHN), Abby Hoffman (CAN), Nataliia Dobrynska (UKR), Sylvia Barlag (NED), Beatrice Ayikoru (UGA), Willie Banks (USA), Antti Pihlakoski (FIN), Cydonie Mothersill (CAY) and Donna Raynor (BER).
On the 26-strong World Athletics Council, the 13 newly elected members will be joined by six Area Presidents and two members of the Athletes' Commission, one woman and one man, including the Chair.
Dominican Republic’s Luguelin Santos stripped of world junior title for age-manipulation violations
Dominican sprinter Luguelin Santos has been stripped of his World Junior Championships gold medal from 2012 and handed a three-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for age-manipulation violations. The AIU revealed this decision on Friday, uncovering Santos's admission to competing with a falsified date of birth during the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona.
Luguelin Santos, now 31 years old, had clinched the 400-metre gold at the 2012 World Junior Championships when he was just 18. However, the AIU's investigation exposed that Santos had utilized a passport with a manipulated birthdate, claiming to be born on November 12, 1993, when, in reality, his birthdate is November 12, 1992. Consequently, Santos was ineligible to participate in the 2012 World Juniors, as per the competition rules requiring junior athletes to be either 18 or 19 years old on December 31 of the competition year.
The AIU, in a statement, clarified the gravity of the violation, stating, "Thus, he was ineligible to participate in the World Juniors 2012." The age-manipulation incident tarnished Santos's victory at the championship, leading to the unprecedented decision to strip him of the gold medal.
Santos, a two-time Youth Olympic champion, had furthered his career by claiming a silver medal in the 400m event at the 2012 London Olympics. However, Brett Clothier, Head of the AIU, emphasized that unlike doping violations, age-manipulation sanctions do not warrant the annulment of Olympic results. Clothier explained, "There is no basis on which to annul his Olympic result as that was not an age-group event and no violation was committed there."
Asenjo, Marte on the double as Dom Rep maul Barbados 7-1 in Group C of League B
The Dominican Republic took a step forward in its efforts to finish atop Group C in League B of the Concacaf Women's Gold Cup qualifiers, with a 7-1 victory over Barbados at the Wildey Astro Turf Stadium in Bridgetown on Friday.
With the win, Dominican Republic moved up to 12 points, one behind leaders Bermuda, who were awarded a 3-0 win over St Vincent and the Grenadines by the disciplinary committee. The top two are scheduled to meet on Tuesday's final matchday to decide group honours.
On Friday, Mia Asenjo opened the scoring in the 21st minute when she connected with a pass over the top to beat Barbados goalkeeper Rhea Holder.
Acacia Small pilled Barbados level in the 32nd after she dispossessed a defender and later finished a lobbed attempt from outside the 18-yard box.
However, their celebrations were short-lived, as Dominican Republic regained the advantage in a minute later through Asenjo, who connected with another ball over the top and expertly headed past Holder.
Lucia Marte added a third for the visitors in the 48th with a strike at the left post from a Kathrynn Gonzalez cross.
Alyssa Oviedo notched a fourth for Dominican Republic in the 68th with a right-footed shot inside the box.
Gonzalez then got on the board in the 77th on a free kick hit with enough force that gave Holder no chance at a save.
Winibian Peralta extended the gap in the 82nd when she applied the finishing touch to a tidy build-up orchestrated by Jazmin Jackson.
Marte completed her brace in the 87th with a curling free kick to add the exclamation point and keep the Dominican Republic in the race for first place.
World champs bronze medallist Sada Williams receives prestigious national honour from Barbados
For her trailblazing exploits in track and field Sada Williams was on Thursday recognized by her home country of Barbados at their Independence Day National Honours ceremony.
Williams, who turns 26 on Friday, is a back-to-back World Championship 400m bronze medallist and is the first Barbadian women to win a medal at a global championship. She won a bronze medal in the 400m at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon and repeated the feat at the 2023 Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August. In so doing she became the first Barbadian athlete to win a global medal at consecutive championships.
She also won the 400m at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England and took home a silver medal at the NACAC Championships that same year.
For that and more, she was awarded The Gold Trident of Excellence Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements and dedicated service to her country. It was an honour to be appreciated, she said.
“I feel very honoured to be recognized this year and last year and I am hoping to continue to do great things reach further,” said Williams who was attending the Independence Day Parade for the very first time.
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