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.
Trudi Carter and Khadijah Shaw each scored hat-tricks as Jamaica clobbered The Cayman Islands 9-0 on Saturday to set up a top-of-the-table showdown with the unbeaten Dominican Republic at Sabina Park on Tuesday.
Carter scored in the seventh, 16th and 17th minutes as Jamaica scored five in the first half against the home side playing at the Truman Bodden Stadium in Georgetown. Tamoy Phillips’ own goal in the 12th and Jody Brown’s goal in the 14th meant that Jamaica scored all five goals within the first 20 minutes of the match.
Miraculously, Jamaica failed to add to the scoreline in the remaining time before the interval.
The domination continued after the break as Shaw scored three within 11 minutes (54’, 56’, 65’) as Jamaica boosted their goal-difference advantage over the Dominican Republic which were only able to defeat Bermuda 1-0.
Kayla McCoy came on as a substitute for Shaw and added her name to the score sheet in the 88th minute to complete the rout.
The lopsided victory means Jamaica leads Group C with the maximum of nine points, the same as the Dominican Republic but Jamaica has scored 19 goals and conceded one in their three matches. The Dominican Republic has 14 from their three matches, which means that they need to defeat Jamaica on Tuesday to win the group and advance to the next round of competition.
A win or a draw for Jamaica means they advance.
Reggae Girlz Head Coach Vin Blaine is to name his squad on Thursday that is to face Bermuda in the preliminary rounds of the Concacaf Women’s World Cup Qualifier on February 17 at the National Stadium in Kingston.
Match time is 7:00 pm.
Jamaica will have to win Group C which comprises Bermuda, Grenada, the Dominican Republic and the Cayman Islands to advance to the next round of qualifiers.
Following the Bermuda match on February 17, Jamaica will travel to face Grenada on February 20. The remaining games against the Dominican Republic and the Cayman Islands will be played in April.
The top finisher in each group will advance to the Concacaf W Championship joining the top-ranked CONCACAF nations, the USA and Canada – that have each received a bye straight to the W Championship which takes place in July 2022.
The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has received approval to accommodate up to 2500 fully vaccinated fans in the Grand Stand of the National Stadium.
Interested fans will have to be validated by the government’s electronic system which will open soon. Following the validation process, fans will be able to purchase tickets for J$3000.
Those fans who were already validated by the system can simply enter and purchase a ticket.
Below are the respective groups for CONCACAF qualifiers.
Group A: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda and Anguilla
Group B: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Saint Kitts and Nevis, US Virgin Islands, and Curacao
Group C: Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Grenada and Cayman Islands
Group D: Panama, El Salvador, Barbados, Belize and Aruba
Group E: Haiti, Cuba, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the British Virgin Islands
Group F: Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Nicaragua, Dominica and Turks and Caicos Islands
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