MUMBAI: Asian Swimming Federation recently held its 14th General Congress in Muscat (Oman) and Swimming Federation of India was represented at this event by its secretary general Monal Chokshi and executive director Virendra Nanavati.
The AASF general congress was the largest in person gathering of sports administrators at the Asian level since the COVID-19 pandemic. Majority of the 45 member NSF of AASF attended the General Congress in person while few attended the same online.
Nanavati was unanimously voted by the AASF General Congress as its nominee for the post of FINA Bureau member at the FINA elections to be held on 5th June 2021 at Doha, Qatar.
Nanavati, along with five other nominees from AASF, will contest the FINA Bureau elections. Among the other five is Hussain Al-Musallam, who will be contesting for the post of FINA president. Al-Musallam is the first Asian to be nominated to contest the post of president to the world body for aquatic sports and if elected will be the first Asian to hold the post of president of FINA.
If elected, Nanavati will be the first Indian to hold this position in the world body for aquatic sports. He has previously served for 12 years on the FINA Masters committee of which four years as the vice chairman and presently sits on the FINA technical committee for swimming as vice chairman. He also holds the post of vice president Asian Swimming Federation since 2000.
His rich experience as a sports administrator at the international level will not only be invaluable as FINA Bureau member but his elevation to the highest decision-making forum at FINA is expected to benefit Indian swimming, especially when SFI is working towards forging a new future for the sport in India.
AASF Nominations for FINA Bureau elections June 2021
• Husain Al-Musallam (Kuwait) – president
• Jihong Zhou (China) – vice-president
• Taha Al-Kishry (Oman) – FINA Bureau
• Andrey Kryukov (Kazakhstan) – FINA Bureau
• Daichi Suzuki (Japan) – FINA Bureau
• Virendra Nanavati (India) – FINA Bureau
