Qatar’s Al Mana elected unopposed as Asian Weightlifting Federation for third term

 

Qatar’s Al Mana elected unopposed as Asian Weightlifting Federation for third term

India’s Shadev Yadav loses Vice-President’s election to Filipino rival

 

By Armstrong Vaz

Doha (Qatar), 5 January: Yousef Al Mana of Qatar got elected unopposed as President of Asian Weightlifting Federation (AWF) for third term at the AWF Electoral Congress held in Doha on Thursday,

Indian Weightlifting Federation President Sahdev Yadav contesting for the fifth vice-president position lost to Monico Puentevella of the Philippines in second round of voting, after the first round saw the two tied at 25 votes apiece forcing the second round of ballot casting.

The decks for Al Mana continuing as President of the Asian body were cleared with other Presidential candidate, Mohamed Alharbi from Saudi Arabia withdrawing earlier in the day paving the way for the Qatari to complete his hat-trick at the helm of affairs of the continent organization.

Alharbi, who is an International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Executive Board member and also the President of Saudi Arabian Weightlifting Federation is new the General Secretary of AWF.

The Saudi official has overseen a huge rise in popularity in weightlifting in his country - including among women, who were not allowed to practise the sport until 2019.

Incidentally Saudi Arabia will host the senior IWF World Championships for the first time in September.

Interestingly, IWF, President Mohamed Jalood, who is from Iraq but lives in Doha, is now AWF’s first vice-president and was also elected unopposed after all other candidates withdrew before the vote.

Al Mana, who was first voted in as President in 2011 will lead the AWF through to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

With the election of Al Mana, Jalood and Alharbi it will be first time in the history of AWF that the three most senior elected positions are held by men from the Arab World

"We need to work together, show the world our unity," Al Mana told delegates on Thursday at the AWF Electoral Congress, the first since 2015.

With weightlifting hit with several doping scandal and its popularity having taken a dip in recent years Al Mana emphasized on the need for "anti-doping, transparency and good governance", from all the AWF’s 45 members while stating that the priority was to keep weightlifting in the Olympic Games.

With Jalood as its first Vice President, the other five vice-presidents are Abdullah Aljarmal from Yemen, Meng Bo of China, senior AWF role won by a female candidate, Sung Yong Choi of South Korea, the nation which hosts the 2023 Asian Championships in May and Shakhrillo Makhmudov of Uzbekistan, with Puentevella completing the list.

The AWF Executive Board of eleven members include Eshaq Ebrahim Eshaq from Bahrain, Meco Chang from Chinese Taipei, Sajjad Anoushiravani from Iran, the other eight Board members are: Ahmad Mohyuddin from Bangladesh, Hasanin Alchikh from Syria, Ebrahem Alemyan from Jordan, Hafez Imran Butt from Pakistan, Omurzhan Moldodosov from Kyrgyzstan, Khodr Moukalled from Lebanon, Junichi Okada from Japan and Partha Sengupta from Nepal.