Bhanot elected Asian Athletics Association vice-president

Scam-tainted former IOA Secretary General Lalit Bhanot was on Monday elected vice-President of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) for a four-year term in polls held in Wuhan, China.

Bhanot got 32 of the 44 votes in the elections, where incumbent Dahlan al-Hamad of Qatar was elected unopposed as President for another term.

Recommended by the Athletics Federation of India, Bhanot fought through a 14-strong challenge to be picked as one of the five vice-Presidents during the AAA council on the eve of the Asian Championships in Wuhan.

“<g data-gr-id="19">Mr</g> Bhanot has been elected as AAA vice-President with a comfortable win,” AFI Director M L Dogra told PTI.

Tainted in the corruption scandal that engulfed the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Bhanot served as secretary of AFI for more than a decade and was the Secretary General of the IOA when it served a 14-month suspension by the IOC.

He is currently the chairman of AFI’s Planning Committee.

Though Bhanot was not allowed to contest IOA elections last year by the International Olympic Committee after being jailed for some months in connection with Commonwealth Games scandal, there was no such bar on him to contest the AAA polls.

Former IOA and AAA chief Suresh Kalmadi, who was also jailed along with Bhanot in the same case, contested the continental body’s presidential elections in 2013 though he lost the polls.