Britain's Sebastian Coe and Sergey Bubka of Ukraine were elected as vice presidents of world athletics governing body IAAF after the elections at the 46th IAAF Congress here on Wednesday.
IAAF President Lamine Diack of Senegal and Honorary Treasurer Jean Poczobut of France will remain in post for another four years.
Ilkka Kanerva of Finland and Alberto Juantorena of Cuba both withdrew from the election for the four vice president positions, and former vice presidents, Helmut Digel of Germany and Amadeo Francis of Purto Rico failed to be re-elected, meaning that each of the vice president posts will be filled by new candidates: Coe, Bubka, Robert Hersh of the United States, and Dahlan Al-Hamad of Qatar.
Six-time world pole vault champion Sergey Bubka, was elected with a 167 votes, ahead of Hersh (141), Coe (137) and Al-Hamad (129).
Coe, also chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, dismissed concerns that taking the role would have a negative effect on his role organising the London Olympics.
"A lot of what I'm doing with the IAAF as an Olympic sport is very complementary to London," he said.
He added that the IAAF faced a big challenge as it tries to grow the sport around the world.
"We've got to excite young people into taking up track and field and being more involved in the sport.
"We've got to make sure the format of the sport and the way it presented is attractive to new audiences."
Source: Xinhua
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