68th UIPM Congress: Dr Klaus Schormann re-elected as UIPM President

Dr Klaus Schormann was re-elected as President of the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) after receiving a unanimous show of support at the 68th UIPM Congress.

Dr Schormann (GER) has been at the head of the global Modern Pentathlon movement since 1993 and has overseen a profound series of changes in the core Olympic sport and the wider UIPM movement, which now consists of six sports and offers a pathway to the Olympic Games for any aspiring pentathlete in the world.

Elections for the Olympic cycle 2016-2020 had been scheduled for day two of the 2016 Congress, November 26, but a proposal came at the end of day one from the President of the European Modern Pentathlon Confederation, Dmitry Svatkovsky (RUS), to accelerate the process of electing the UIPM President.

It led to a UIPM General Assembly that consisted of almost 80 nations being invited to show their support for the incumbent President - and they did so, before following up with a standing ovation.

Dr Schormann, 70, became emotional on the stage as he accepted the mandate to serve for another four years leading up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. That will be the Games when his vision of Modern Pentathlon taking place in a single venue - the Tokyo Stadium - will come to fruition.

Dr Schormann said: "I am more than pleased and very honoured that the Assembly has chosen to elect me as President a day before the election was supposed to take place.

"It gives me a very strong feeling to do my best with all my energy. It's never a question of age, it's a question of energy and I am very invigorated by this vote of confidence. I have to thank my family, especially my wife, for their ongoing support.

"I am looking forward to the continuation of our elective Congress tomorrow and I am sure I will be given a great team for the next Olympic cycle. A great leader is nothing without a great team."

The election took place 24 hours after Dr Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, strongly endorsed the development and progress of Modern Pentathlon as an Olympic when he spoke at the official opening of Congress in Frankfurt's City Hall.

Dr Schormann has a strong presence within the Olympic movement, having been a member and coordinator of the IOC's working groups on Culture and Olympic Education since 1994. In 2008 he also became Chairman of the IOC Sub-Commission on Youth Olympic Games and he is a member of the IOC Commissions for Culture and Olympic Education and Sport for All.

Shiny Fang, UIPM Secretary General, paid tribute to the President by saying: "This Congress has shown already that our membership has great confidence in the UIPM Executive Board and the administration and especially our President.

"All of the Executive Board's recommendations were adopted today including a motion that was supported after we adjusted the wording to make it clearer. That is a great sign that we are operating as a united global UIPM community.

"We are very happy to have the continuity of Klaus Schormann's leadership and we will continue to innovate as we develop our wonderful sporting movement."

The following motions were today approved by the 68th Congress:

• Laser-Run is to be incorporated into Modern Pentathlon and Tetrathlon with the UIPM sport introduced as a replacement terminology for Combined Event, the Run/Shoot discipline that is the climax of Modern Pentathlon.

• UIPM will update its Anti-Doping constitution to ensure full compliance with the latest recommendations from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), namely that the federation will be the sole results management authority for all anti-doping rule violations.

• UIPM will appoint an Innovation Commission and an Equipment Commission to ensure its sports are always up to date with technological developments and opportunities.

• The scoring system in Modern Pentathlon will be changed to reduce the value of Swimming points from three points per second to two points per second. This is a change aimed at stimulating development in countries where the swimming infrastructure is not fully established.

• The UIPM Rules of Internal Organization will be changed in regard to athletes who change their National Federation (NF). An athlete will be able to participate in Category A & B competitions on behalf of a new NF provided that at least two years have passed since they represented their former NF, and at least three years in the case of the Olympic Games.