Former Italian international shooter
Luciano Rossi became the new president of the sport's ruling
body, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) on
Wednesday beating out an oligarch close to Russian President
Vladimir Putin who is Russia's richest man and was the outgoing
ISSF head.
Foligno-born Rossi, 68, the outgoing vice president, got 136
votes to his rival Vladimir Lisin's 127 at the ISSF general
assembly at Sharm-El-Sheik in Egypt.
Lison, who since the Russian invasion of Ukraine has desribed
Putin as a "mere acquaintance", had beaten Rossi by just four
votes in the last assembly election in 2018, when the Italian
said he had received death threats and been at the centre of
other murky incidents on the night before the vote.
"I'm extremely happy with this result," said Rossi, adding that
"it comes after difficult years in which I did some hard work
with my staff.
"I mean to be the president of all and to relaunch this sport of
ours," he said, announcing as his first move the appointment of
US shooting ace and triple Olympic gold medallist Kimberly Rhode
as one of his vice presidents.
The US and Italy are among the world's leading shooting nations.
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