Hans Natorp is the new President of the DIF ©Hans Natorp/Twitter

Hans Natorp has been elected chairman of the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF) after seeing off rival candidate Thomas Bach in the vote at the organisation's Annual General Meeting.

Natorp, nominated for the top job by the Danish Sailing Union, received 76 votes, with Bach earning 71.

Victory sees Natorp succeed Niels Nygaard, who had led the DIF for 14 years before opting not to stand for re-election.

"I look forward to taking the DIF on a courageous and visionary journey, where we constantly challenge and develop our organisation with an ambition for progress, diversity, relevance and world class - in the same way that we have done our best for 125 years to develop our talents and athletes in more than 90 sports in our 62 special Federations," Natorp said.

"I am deeply overwhelmed and happy with the result and the trust from the Board of Representatives.

"I would like to say a big thank you to Thomas Bach for a good and sober election campaign. 

"I am very much looking forward to continuing the collaboration with him."

Bach will continue to serve as a vice-chairman of the DIF, alongside newly-elected Frans Hammer.

Nygaard became DIF President in 2007, when he replaced Kai Holm, and first joined the organisation nearly 30 years ago.

He lost out to International Olympic Committee member Spyros Capralos of Greece in the European Olympic Committees Presidential election earlier this month.