Pat Hickey has retained the Presidency of the Olympic Council of Ireland with a landslide victory of 27 votes to 10.
Hickey had been in confident mood going into tonight’s election in Jury’s hotel, maintaining that he had sufficient support to win the vote despite the fact that many of the individual sporting associations, including his own (judo), had pledged their vote to rival candidate Richard Burrows.
His confidence was proven justified though, with Hickey getting 8 votes more than the required total of 19 necessary to secure victory.
Hickey thanked those who had supported him saying that he was "honoured to be re-elected and looked forward to implementing a good campaign for Athens 2004".
He also vowed to make the Olympic council more Athlete friendly and said that in future Athletes will have their own representative on the executive committee.
Defeated candidate Richard Burrows also thanked those who had supported him and wished president elect Hickey the best for the next four years.