MILAN: The congress of the International Sports Press Associations (AIPS) has elected Gianni Merlo as its president for the next term. Apart from the Italian, Esat Yilmaer of Turkey (first Vice President) and Jorge Ribeiro of Portugal (Treasurer) were also elected unanimously.

The election held here at the Congress Hall in Marriott Hotel elected five Vice Presidents — Laima Janusonyte (Lithuania), Konstantinos Vernikos (Greece), Faisal Al Qanai (Kuwait), Nickolai Dolgopolov (Russia) and Manouchehr Zandi (Iran). Also, Mohammad Al Malki (Qatar), Emanuel Fantaneanu (Romania), Zhang Haifeng (China), Evelyn Watta (Kenya), Adolf Ingi Erlingsson (Iceland), Mitchel Obi (Nigeria), Dezso Dobor (Hungary) and Raul Garcia Salguero (Mexico) were elected as the Executive Committee Members.

Representatives from 110 national sports journalists associations across the globe took part in the voting. Nepal Sports Journalists Forum General Secretary Hemanta Kafle and Foreign Department Chief Ujjwol Acharya represented Nepal in the congress.