History as AK boss Tuwei elected World Athletics vice president

Athletics Kenya President Lt. Gen. (Rtd) Jackson Tuwei was on Thursday elected as the World Athletics Vice-President (Africa) at the 54th World Athletics Congress in Budapest, Hungary.

Sebastian Coe retained his World Athletics Presidency unchallenged, two days before the start of the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.

Tuwei, who also serves as Confederation of Africa Athletics Senior Vice President, becomes the first Kenyan to hold the vice presidency position at the world athletics governing body.

Tuwei garnered 104 votes  as former Colombian sprinter Ximena Restrepo (South America) got 154 votes to also get elected as vice president.

Others vice presidents are legendary Spanish triple jumper Raul Chapado (Europe) who got 119 votes and former Indian sprinter Adille Sumariwalla (Asia) who attracted 115 votes.

Tuwei also the President of the Eastern Africa Athletics Region and a member of the World Athletics Global Calendar Committee.

Tuwei said he will push for the drive to have youth joining the sport en masse with women too having a major say in decision making at the highest level.

Tuwei becomes the third African after former World Athletics President Lamine Diack and former World Athletics vice-president Hamad Kalkaba Malboum from Cameroon to hold the highest positions in the World Athletics Council.

Diack served as World Athletics President from 1999 to 2015, taking over after the death of Italian Primo Nebilo while Kalkaba, who is the current Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) President, served as a Council member.

Former National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) supremo, the late Charles Mukora and former Athletics Kenya president, the late Isaiah Kiplagat once served as Council members.

Kiplagat had in 2015 vied to become one of the four Vice-Presidents but failed in his bid during the elections where Coe was elected as new World Athletics President, succeeding Diack.

Kiplagat also lost his bid to retain his seat as a Council member during the 2015 elections in Beijing.

Tuwei, who had served in the military for 39 years, rising to the rank of a Lieutenant General before retiring in 2010, has been Athletics Kenya President since 2015, succeeding Kiplagat, who had stepped down.

He has served as Senior Vice-President of CAA for four years as well as a similar period as the President of Eastern Africa Athletics Region.

The AK boss has successfully organised African championships, trained CAA members on Sports for Climate and Air Quality Actions besides installing 12 Air Quality monitors in five countries in Africa.

On the eve of the elections, Tuwei presented to the congress about AK's work on sustainability and United Nation Sport for climate action, which has been recognised by the World Athletics.

He said that with over 5,000m registered athletes, strong government support and ambitious development strategy and engagement for climate action, Kenya deserved a seat at the table of the top decision makers.

“I bring along my passion, unique experience and commitment for success,” said Tuwei.

He said that he will support an increase in the number of women and minorities in leadership and technical positions in athletics and promotion of integrity by combating doping in Kenya.