World Baseball and Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari won the election to become an ARISF representative on the SportAccord Council ©SportAccord

World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) President Riccardo Fraccari was today voted onto the SportAccord Council as the second member from the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF).

He defeated Antonio Espinos, the Spanish President of the World Karate Federation, who had held the position for eight years, during the ARISF General Assembly held on the opening day of the SportAccord Convention World Sport & Business Summit here.

Riccardo Fraccari, the secretary general of ARSIF, polled 18 votes to Espinos' 16.

The 65-year-old Fraccari is also currently the chairman of the Italian National Olympic Committee's (CONI) International Relations Exploratory Committee and a member of the CONI Council.

He is also leading a campaign, which increasingly looks like being successful, to have baseball and softball restored to the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020 after it was dropped following Beijing 2008. 

Fraccari will sit on the SportAccord Council alongside Raffaele Chiulli, the President of ARSIF. 

“As a Council Member I would seek to work as a bridge between SportAccord and the ARISF for the benefit of all Member Federations of ARISF," he told delegates after his election. 

"I commit myself to improving ARISF influence inside SportAccord to protect the members and I thank the members today for investing their faith in me."

World Underwater Federation President Anna Arzhanova was elected to become a director of ARISF following a process which lasted more than an hour and required six ballots
World Underwater Federation President Anna Arzhanova was elected to become a director of ARISF following a process which lasted more than an hour and required six ballots ©ITG

It followed an election to pick a new director of the ARISF Council which required six ballots and took more than an hour to complete before World Underwater Federation President Anna Arzhanova was chosen. 

The Russian finally secured the necessary majority of 18 votes, beating secretary general of the International Floorball Federation, John Liljelund.

The first five rounds of voting failed to secure an outright winner as the other contenders - Richard T. Caleel from the Federation of International Polo, Anthony Goh of the International Wushu Federation and Claude Azema from the International Boules Federation - were eliminated. 

The two penultimate rounds produced ties before Arzhanova emerged the winner.

Liljelund tweeted: "Life is strange sometimes. Loosing the election for ARISF council in the 6th round is hard, after a tie in the 4th and 5th round."