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Jean Zoungrana, candidate of the French Canoe Federation, was elected new president of the European Canoe Association, after receiving the support of the 21 out of 36 present delegates with the voting right at the 16^th Ordinary Congress of the European Canoe Association.

 

"It is an honour for me to be elected, I am very thankful for the confidence placed in me in this election. For me it was important to give a new impulse to the ECA. Of course, I am respectful of all the work that has been done with the previous president Albert Woods. This is why it was important for us to make him honorary life president of this federation," said the newly elected president of the ECA Jean Zoungrana.

 

Jean Zoungrana has been leading the French Canoe Federation since the year 2016, he is also the Vice-President and Member of the board of directors of the French National Olympic and Paralympic Committees (since 2021). The newly elected president of the ECA used to be technical delegate at the International University Sports Federation (2012-2016) and President of the Britany regional canoe committee and member of the national federal council (2012-2016).

 

Andrej Jelenc from the Canoe Federation of Slovenia was elected vice-president of the European Canoe Association.

 

Three positions in the ECA board of directors were for the grab at this congress and there were six candidates. The elected members of the board of directors are Jovana Stanojević from Serbia, ECA technical delegate for canoe sprint, and German representative Manuela Gawehn, wildwater canoeing technical delegate, and Geir Kvillum, president of the Norwegian Canoe Association.

 

Evelina Petrova from Bulgaria was re-elected to the position of the ECA Auditor.

 

Albert Woods OBE was leading the European Canoe Association since its foundation in 1993 in Rome. Jean Zoungrana thanked Albert Woods for everything he had done for canoeing in all these years and proposed to the congress to name Albert Woods honorary life president of the European Canoe Association. The congress supported the proposal and Albert Woods, who was a candidate for the re-election with the support of the Greek Canoe Federation, has become the honorary life president of the ECA. After this Albert Woods said: "I am proud to make the ECA the best continental organisation in the world. We've left it in the good position and we have a good team of people we used to work with, Jean will be lucky to take this over."

 

 

After the end of the congress, the new board of directors held a meeting. It was decided that in 2024 Szeged will organise a combined Canoe Sprint, Paracanoeing and SUP European Championships, and in 2026 the same venue in Szeged will host the ECA Junior and U23 Canoe Sprint European Championships.