Chandigarh, 7 Jan

Asian Games gold-winning former shot putter Bahadur Singh Sagoo was on Tuesday elected unopposed as the Athletics Federation of India's president, succeeding the long-serving Adille Sumariwalla in the top position.

The 51-year-old Sagoo, who will be serving a four-year term (2025-29), won a shot put gold in the 2002 Busan Asian Games and also took part in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. He is a member of the AFI Athletes Commission.

Sagoo was the lone candidate left in the fray after incumbent senior vice-president Anju Bobby George opted out of the race for the top position due to personal reasons.

His election was formalised at the two-day Annual General Meeting of the AFI. Anju was also elected for her second term as senior vice-president.

Sagoo, who hails from Jalandhar and is currently serving as commandant in Punjab Police, had won the men's shot put gold in 2002 Asian Games with a throw of 19.03m. He has a lifetime best of 20.40m, and is also a Padma Shri recipient. He is also a member of the senior selection committee.

There were no elections for the remaining posts, a repeat of what happened during the last AGM in 2020.

"I am thankful to all the members for electing me as president. I will take forward the existing programmes of the AFI which are already robust and showing results. My team and I will try to take everyone along to take Indian athletics even further," Sagoo said.

Delhi unit's top official Sandeep Mehta was elected unopposed as the AFI secretary. He was the senior joint secretary in the outgoing executive council.

Stanely Jones was made the treasurer while Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, who won the 800m and 1500m gold in the 1998 Asian Games, will be the joint secretary.

Among the new executive committee members will be Sudha Singh, who won the 3000m steeplechase gold at the 2010 Asian Games, former 100m national record holder Rachita Mistry, Harjinder Singh and Priyanka Bhanot -- daughter of AFI Planning Commission Chairman Lalit Bhanot.

Out of the 18 elected members of Executive Council, nine are former sportspersons and six females, according to Sumariwalla.

The election process was conducted by retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Raj Sekhar Attri. Ethical Compliance and Risk Officer of World Athletics Niels Lindholm attended the formal election process online on Tuesday.

Sports Ministry official SPS Tomar was present as election observer.

"The election was to be held in October last year but got slightly delayed because of ongoing activities in the AFI as well as the Athletes Commission elections that we had to conduct," Sumariwalla said.

"We requested World Athletics and Sport Ministry to delay the elections by three months and the permission was granted."

The election notice was issued on 22 December and the last date of filing nominations was 29 December.

The 67-year-old Sumariwalla has been the AFI president since 2012 and was not eligible to contest elections this time under the existing National Sports Code.

During his tenure, Neeraj Chopra won the historic gold in the Tokyo Olympics followed by a silver in the Paris Games.

Sumariwalla is currently a member of the powerful executive board of World Athletics.

New AFI office-bearers:

President: Bahadur Singh Sagoo

Senior Vice-President: Anju Bobby George

Vice-Presidents: Abu Metha, Jayanta Malla Baruah, AK Sharma

Secretary: Sandeep Mehta

Treasurer: Stanley Jones

Senior Joint Secretary: S Srinibas Patnaik

Joint-secretaries: Sharat Chandra Singh, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, Finley L Pariat

Executive Council members: Sudha Singh, Harjinder Singh Gill, Sharda Devi Jadam, Priyanka Bhanot, Rachita Mistry, A Rajavelu, K Sarangapani.