World cycling chief Lappartient France’s new Olympic chief

PARIS, AFP: World cycling chief David Lappartient was on Thursday elected president of the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) on the back of a call for unity in the run-in to next year’s Paris Games.

Lappartient, head of the International Cycling Union (UCI), won 36 of the 44 votes cast from a possible 48 on the CNOSF board: there were three no-votes and one abstention.

Eight votes went to 50-year-old Lappartient’s rival, Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, co-president of the French federation of grassroots sports, meaning it is Lappartient who will replace Brigitte Henriques.

Henriques announced her shock resignation in May after 18 months of internal squabbling and a very public disagreement with her predecessor Denis Masseglia.

The mandate of the new president, who was last year elected to serve an eight-year term as a member of the International Olympic Committee, will be confirmed by a vote of the CNOSF’s general assembly on September 13.