Poul-Erik Høyer: “I want unity”

BWF President-elect Poul-Erik Høyer (right) shakes hands with outgoing president Kang Young Joong

Minutes after the Annual General Meeting had finished in the Double Tree Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and the last votes counted for the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Council for 2013 – 2017, the new BWF President Poul-Erik Hoyer, from Denmark, was handed over the job from Dr. Kang Young Joong.

There was a lot of excitement and a lot of rumours. Some Member Associations had been overheard changing their votes from one day to another. No one could predict whether Dr. Justian Suhandinata or Poul-Erik Høyer would succeed Dr. Kang Young Joong as BWF President.

At 10AM this morning, the BWF announced the results on its Facebook page.  Poul-Erik Høyer, current President of Badminton Europe, had won the vote by 25 votes: 145 for his bid while Indonesia’s Suhandinata got 120, with one spoiled ballot.  Minutes later, the candidate for Deputy President who was supporting Høyer – Gustavo Fernando Salazar Delgado – was also elected, beating incumbent Paisan Rangsikitpho by 148 votes to 118.

Høyer presented the press his new vision for the upcoming four years. His first words – as with a champion right off court – were for his opponent, Justian Suhandinata: “I have a lot of respect for Justian. I am happy today, of course, because I won, but I’m also sad because in this battle, there was a winner and a loser. But Justian’s attitude was great.  We had a quick talk right after the election and he was still keen on helping the development of badminton and helping us in spite of his defeat. I think this is a great thing and it shows that we are looking for unity in the badminton world,” said the Dane.

The former Olympic champion – he won the men’s singles gold in Atlanta in 1996 – addressed to the media his will to work hand in hand with everyone to make the sport stay in the Olympic programme and he promised that the BWF would try to strengthen its links to the International Olympic Committee, but that there would be no movement of the BWF office from Kuala Lumpur to Europe.

New BWF Executive Board

President: Poul Erik Høyer (Denmark)
Deputy President: Gustavo Fernando Salazar Delgado (Peru)

Continental Confederation Vice Presidents (elected by respective confederations before the AGM)
Africa – Dagmawit Berhane
Asia – Liu Fengyan
Europe – Gregory Verpoorten
Oceania – Geraldine Brown
Pan America – Vishnu Tolan
Paul Kurzo – Vice President Para-Badminton
Emma Mason – Chair of BWF Athletes’ Commission

17 additional Council members were also elected during the 2013 BWF AGM. They are shown below (number of votes in parentheses).

Akhilesh Das Gupta, India (259)
Etienne Thobois, France (255)
Sergey Shakhray, Russia (254)
Li Ling Wei, China (253)
Mehdi Karbasian, Iran (244)
Lim Teong Kiat, Malaysia (233)
David Cabello, Spain (171)
Peter Tarcala, Slovakia (168)
Raj Gaya, Mauritius (168)
Jassem Kanso, Lebanon (166)
Nigel Skelt, New Zealand (164)
Nora Perry, England (164)
Ranjit De Silva, Sri Lanka (164)
Chipo Zumburani, Zimbabwe (162)
Lawrence Chew, Switzerland (162)
Wayne Somers, Canada (157)
Ng Yoke Weng, Singapore (156)

(re-elected incumbent Council members shown in purple)