No bad surprises, and no suspense, for the election for the presidency of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The only candidate, the Indian Raja Randhir Singh, was elected for a first full term. The former multiple Olympic medalist shooter, aged 77, had been acting as interim head of the OCA since 2021 and the annulled election of the Kuwaiti Talal Fahad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, brother of Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, himself a former president of the Asian body. The first Indian to preside over the OCA, Raja Randhir Singh was elected with 44 votes in favour and one abstention at the 44th general assembly of the body in New Delhi. A member of the IOC between 2001 and 2014, he has now joined the ranks of honorary members. He is only the third president of the OCA since its creation in 1982. The organization was chaired by Kuwaiti Fahad Al-Sabah until his death in 1990, killed on the first day of the Iraqi invasion, then by his son Ahmad Al-Sabah, forced to resign in 2021 after being convicted by the Swiss courts.
