Amos Abuga
Athletics Kenya (AK) president Jackson Tuwei is now officially one of the two vice presidents of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).
By virtue of being elected the president of East African Athletics Region during a congress held in Addis Ababa in January, CAA says the Kenyan boss became one of its vice presidents for the next four years as he did not have any opponent for the position from his region.
Tuwei will deputize Cameroonian Hamad Kalkaba Malboum who was re-elected on Monday night during the Ordinary Congress of CAA held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
First women
The long serving leader defeated Tunisian rival Amara Khaled by 44 votes to seven to retain his seat.
Malboum has been at the helm of CAA since 2003 after taking over from Lamine Diack who went on to become president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 1999 to 2015.
IAAF President Sebastian Coe who attended the congress said: “I like history, so I want to congratulate Africa on the performance of its athletes and Hellen Obiri’s achievement in Aarhus. She became the first women on the planet to win senior world titles Indoors, Outdoors and at Cross Country.”
Key on Tuwei’s agenda is addressing the regions discontent after the International Association of Athletics (IAAF) move to relegate the 10,000m and 5,000m events from the 2020 Diamond League Series. Coe is expected to defend his seat during the World Championships to be held in Doha, Qatar.
