Dr Malav Shroff has been re-elected unopposed as the President of the Asian Sailing Federation (ASAF) at the organisation’s Annual General Meeting, which took place virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Zhang Xiaodong was the only other contestant standing for the post, but she withdrew due to personal reasons.
Dr Shroff is due to serve a further four year term through to 2025, and following his re-election he unveiled his vision for ASAF going forward.
Dr Shroff’s plans for his tenure include helping more countries develop stronger programmes in sailing, with a pledge of developing Asian Centres of Development and Excellence throughout the continent to help towards this aim.
Other plans set out include to increase female participation in sailing across Asia, and to encourage the development of female coaches and technical officials.
Other parts of Dr Shroff’s vision include getting more countries involved in ASAF Committees and for the organisation to be self-sustaining financially.
Dr Shroff, who is Indian, and a member of the World Olympians Association Executive Committee representing Asia, said he also believed that “there is a need to make the Asian Games much bigger and to be a bigger voice in World Sailing.”
Four vice-presidents were elected following a vote which saw 29 out of 32 Member National Authorities (MNAs) participate.
Koravic Wikki of Thailand, Pilsung Lee of Korea, Abdur Rehman Arshad of Pakistan and Lukman Abu Bakar of Malaysia were elected to the posts.
The virtual meeting included contributions from guest speakers, which included Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) director Haider Farman, and the OCA’s director of international and National Olympic Committee relations Vinod Tiwari.
The OCA contributors spoke positively about the progress of ASAF under the leadership of Dr Shroff, and said they would continue working alongside the organisation to grow sailing in Asia, and to run youth camps for sailors.
World Sailing chief executive David Graham also joined the meeting, and provided MNAs with an update about World Sailing programmes.
