Quanhai Li (CHN) elected as World Sailing President

Quanhai Li (CHN) World Sailing President © World Sailing

Quanhai Li (CHN) has been elected as World Sailing President, announced today at World Sailing's Virtual General Assembly.

Four Presidential candidates were up for election in the first round and no candidate received more than 50% of votes. A second round of voting was required between the top two candidates. Kim Andersen (DEN) and Li advanced to the second round.

In the second round of voting, 128 Member National Authorities, in good standing with World Sailing, sent verified votes to the Independent Scrutineer. Receiving 68 votes, Quanhai Li was elected as World Sailing President. Andersen received 60 votes.

World Sailing Member National Authorities, in good standing with World Sailing, were eligible to vote and when casting their ballot, they were required to vote for at least two male and two female candidates for Vice President.

The election process for Vice-Presidential candidates concluded on 16 October with no run-off voting process required. MNAs were invited to vote for seven Vice-Presidents, of which at least two votes for male and two votes for female candidates were required.

Joining World Sailing President Quanhai Li on the Board of Directors will be:

• Tomasz Chamera (POL)
• Sarah Kenny (AUS)
• Philip Baum (RSA)
• Yann Rocherieux (FRA)
• Duriye Özlem Akdurak (TUR)
• Marcus Spillane (IRL)
• Cory Sertl (USA)

Click here for the full election results.

David Graham, World Sailing CEO, commented, "I warmly welcome Mr Quanhai Li as President of World Sailing; it is a great advantage having already served for eight years on the Board. Our new President is joined by a very strong set of Vice-Presidents who have a wealth of experience as former Council and Committee members. The future of World Sailing is in very capable hands and I look forward to working with our new Board. World Sailing's elected Board work incredibly hard and I take this opportunity to thank the outgoing members for their huge efforts over their term."

The Chairman of the Athletes' Commission will join the Board of Directors as a permanent voting member. In addition, the World Sailing Presidents of Honour, His Majesty King Harald V of Norway and His Majesty King Constantine are entitled to attend and participate in Board of Directors meetings, but they do not hold a vote.

The newly appointed Board of Directors will serve a four-year term up until the 2024 General Assembly.

World Sailing's 2020 Election of Officers was overseen by an Election Committee, chaired by Philip Cotton and supported by Melanie Willmore and David Kellett. KPMG (UK) LLP were appointed as the Independent Scrutineer and accepted and validated the votes on behalf of World Sailing.