| Windsurfers demand judicial review of ISAF Olympic decision |
| Thursday, 02 August 2012 15:38 |
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The International RS:X Class Association is taking legal action against the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).The decision comes after the governing body for the sport of sailing selected kiteboarding and not windsurfing as Olympic sailing event for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. "The opinion of our legal team is that the decision was perverse and unfair and so we issued a claim on August 1st 2012, in the High court in London, for the decision to be judicially reviewed", says the RS:X statement. "This is based on a number of assertions including a failure by ISAF to have full regard to the designated criteria for the selection of Olympic classes and to ignore a previous decision that a full evaluation would be carried out on both the RS:X and kiteboard". The close vote of 19-17 council members gave kiteboarding the Olympic ticket but, soon after, the Spanish representative said he had made a mistake. The declaration was followed by a few Scandinavian countries and a Central America representative- They said they have voted against their wishes and the world windsurfing community protested. The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA), a part of the process, does not understand the decision taken by the RS:X class. "We feel shocked that an international class, being bound by ISAF constitution, rules and regulations, is even considering legal action against the world governing body because of a decision that has been taken in a democratic process and in full accordance with the defined decision making processes of ISAF", say the IKA managers. "Initiating legal action in the middle of the Olympic Games might damage not only the performance of the affected sailors but also the reputation of sailing in general". |
