The Ligue Europeenne de Natation (LEN) that governs European Swimming has announced their new board of directors following their Congress meeting in Portugal last week, as well as the host of one of their major championship meets for 2013.
Paolo Berelli, the president of the Italian Swimming Federation, was nominated to a four year term as the president of LEN. One might consider this a peculiar selection, given that in November of last year, his federation back-pedaled from their previously-won bid to host the 2014 World Championships: a huge black-mark on the Italian Federation.
He replaces Nory Kruchten from Luxembourg in the position.
His Vice Presidents will include Christa Thiel (Germany), Dimitris Diatesopulos (Greece), Francis Lewis (France), Erik van Heijningen (the Netherlands), and Sven van Holst (Sweden).
Meanwhile, that new committee has declared their first hosting decision: next year’s European Short Course Championships that will take place from December 12th through 15th, 2013. The event will be held in Herning, Denmark at the Jyske Bank Boxen. Though the town of Herning has only just under 47,000 inhabitants, the facility that looks a bit like the base of a pyramid holds 15,000 people. It claims to be Denmark’s largest multi-purpose arena, and in 2010 successfully hosted the European Women’s Handball Championships.
Herning topped Israel in the final round of voting.
This year’s Short Course Championships will be in Chartres, France from November 22nd-25th in the leadup to December’s Short Course World Championships.
“…huge black-mark on the Italian Federation”? My grandparents use to say: “in the dark every cat is black”;)