International Canoe Federation board member Joao Costa Alegre has been recognised for his services to sport at the Association of National Olympic Committee (ANOC) General Assembly in Tokyo.
Costa Alegre is President of the Sao Tome and Principe National Olympic Committee, an Association of African National Olympic Committee’s (ANOCA) vice president, and is a 2nd vice-president of the International Canoe Federation.
The ANOC gathering was told Costa Alegre is a former member of his country’s national handball team, a leading local basketball coach, and President of the Confederation of African Canoeing.
Costa Alegre headed straight to Tokyo from the 2018 ICF Congress, which was held in Budapest over the weekend, and where several long-standing members of the international canoeing family were recognized.
Otto Bonn, a former secretary-general of the ICF and ICF vice-president at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, was made an honorary ICF secretary-general.
Dutchwoman Elly Muller, a member of the ICF’s canoe sprint committee, received an ICF Order of Merit.
Muller is also a long-standing member of the European Canoe Association’s board of directors and a canoe sprint technical delegate for the ECA.
Jean-Claude Dethise, who has an association with canoeing stretching back more than 40 years, was also awarded an IOC Order of Merit.
For almost 14 years Dethise has been the general secretary of Royal Belgian Canoe, and has also served as an international technical official since 1996. He has been auditor for the European Canoe Association.
