New Delhi, May 22: Incumbent Narinder Batra of India was on Saturday re-elected as the International Hockey Federation (FIH) President for a second term after beating Marc Coudron of Belgium by a slender margin of just two votes during the world body’s virtual 47th Congress.
Considered the favourite from the beginning, Batra, who is also the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, barely managed to pip Coudron, who is the chief of Belgium Hockey Federation and sits on the country’s Olympic panel.
Batra secured 63 votes as against his rival’s 61 to emerge winner during the online voting process, in which 124 member associations participated.
The incumbent FIH chief, too, admitted that it was a close contest. He said that he will now try to work towards regaining the faith of his colleagues.
“It was a good election, it was a very close contest. Going by the trend of voting, 49 per cent people wanted a change and it is now my duty to interact and understand where they feel I didn’t live up to their expectations,” Batra said during a virtual press conference after the election.
“I was never over confident as nobody knows what is going to happen in an election.”
The FIH Congress was held virtually due to travel restrictions imposed in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. (PTI)
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