Andersen elected president of World Sailing, beating Croce

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:06 p.m. ET

foxsports

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) Kim Andersen of Denmark has been elected president of World Sailing, beating incumbent Carlo Croce of Italy and Paul Henderson of Canada.

The 59-year-old Andersen is a longtime sailor who has represented the sport as an athlete and senior administrator. He was elected Sunday at World Sailing's General Assembly in Barcelona, Spain.

With international business experience as a CEO, vice president and managing director of a number of international companies, Andersen has pledged to make the governance of World Sailing more transparent.

He says: ''This is an exciting day for World Sailing. Today marks a turning point in the history of our sport. We have a lot of work to do and I am focused on uniting our sport so that each and every country continues gets the right tools and knowledge they need to develop our sport worldwide.''