The SportAccord Convention in Sochi has ended.
We participated in several General Assemblies, as SportAccord and IWGA and we had observer status in the General Assemblies within ARISF and ASOIF.
Delegates from WAKO were Salim Kayıcı, Espen Lund and Nasser Nassiri.
What happened in Sochi was in many ways dramatic when President Vizer initiated a real emotional and controversial discussion about the realism of the IOC reform process. Without going into detail, this started some intensive discussions between the IFs and some of them indicated their withdrawal of membership in SportAccord. All this information and press releases were launched, so they can be found at SportAccord and ASOIF websites. The SportAccord Convention is a big opportunity to meet colleagues, organizations and partners. Here are some meetings we conducted;
IOC
I had a brief conversation with Thomas Bach, President of IOC. I informed him that I am elected as the new Acting President of WAKO. He wished me success on my new duty.
ANOC/OCA
We had a meting with H.H. Sheikh Al-Sabah at the Hotel. We visited his personal suite and had good time to discuss both WAKO matters and SportAccord matters. It was indeed a fruitful meeting and we got a lot of advises for which we will follow in our preparation towards IOC recognition.
SportAccord
We had a good conversation with President Marius Vizer and I got to introduce myself as the new Acting President of WAKO. We got a confirmation that Mr. Vizer will help and support WAKO to higher recognition. Besides that, we had a meeting about WAKO and Kickboxing’s place in 2017 Combat Games in Lima, Peru, with Multi-Sports Directors, Mr. David Nivelle and Mrs. Lisa Allan.
FISU
We had meetings with the President Claude-Louis Gallien and the Secretary General Eric Saintrond about the inclusion of WAKO and we got their clear feedback on how to be included in Championships and as member. Also instructed to seek patronage for the national university championships by asking the national university for which again will apply to FISU. Espen had some brief meetings with the IOC Sports Department and the Director Kit McConnell in due to the future application and had meetings with SportAccord and their Integrity Department in order to prepare an education module included some kickboxing specific material. We will inform in details more about this when the processes should start and according to all the information provided earlier about the IOC requirements.
AIMS
Espen Lund was responsible for conducting the first AIMS Assembly as the AIMS president. New Statutes was one of the topics in the agenda but the main issue was to elect the AIMS chairman for the coming 4 years. There were two candidate for this position, Espen Lund as the former AIMS chairman and Stephan FOX, General Secretary of IFMA. I am sorry to say that Espen lost and Stephan Fox was elected. We are of course sorry about that but we cannot do anything about this now and need to focus on intensify our international development and recognition.
In conclusion, we had very productive few days in Sochi. The meetings we had were fruitful and I believe that what we have done in Sochi will make a significant contribution to our IOC recognition process and development of our sport.
Salim KAYICI
WAKO (IF) Acting President
