Belarus Hockey Federation elected a new president

With a unanimous vote - of the 70 delegates present 70 voted "yes" - Igor Rackowski was elected the new President of Belarusian Icehockey Federation succeeding Evgeny Vorsin, in office from 2010. Current Vice-President of Belarus Olympic Committee, Rackowski, 46, graduated in law, served in various officer positions in the Strategic Missile Forces, military counterintelligence agencies until 2012. After the elections, Rackowski gave a brief statement to pressball.by: "Starting next week, I plan to begin a tour to the regions where I'll  meet  with experts and will discuss a number of issues. I have always stressed that some critical moments expressed in the address of the previous management, so you need to draw conclusions and analyze - what worked and what did not. As a result, our work should strive to do things better."

General assembly of the Federation elected also four Vice-Chairman: Anatoly Varivonchik (chairman of Neman Grodno), Andrei Astashevich (Director of the "National Olympic Training Center for winter sports" Raubichi), Vladimir Berezhkov (member of the Supervisory Board of Dinamo Minsk) and Aleksei Prokopovich (General Director of Yunost Minsk).

Passing the mantle to Igor Rackowski, former President Evgeny Vorsin summed up his four-years mandate: "When choosing the strategy for the period from 2010 to 2014, we realized that would have been four decisive years in terms of organization the structures of  clubs, develope junior hockey and reform of the national championship. All was conducted under the umbrella of the state program of development of hockey.The Board immediately began to take decisions, not always popular, but necessary to bring hockey out of the doldrums. Determining factor in this respect was the World Hockey Championship in Minsk. He was recognized by the IIHF as one of the best in history. In accordance with the state program the number of ice arenas has risen from 26 to 33, with new facilities constructed in Ivatsevichy, Lida, Luninets, Gorki ... Compared to the year 2010 grew the number of players.Now we have 8350 registered players. Although the whole system is far from perfect." as reported by belarushockey.com

Present at the meeting, Maxim Rizhenkov, Assistant to the President Lukashenko for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, expressed his satisfaction for the election of Rackowski: "Hockey has to move. If the average age of the apparatus of the executive committee of about 60 years, if the knowledge of foreign languages ​​is amost zero in fact when the leadership of the Federation talks with international officials IIHF need ten translators, well this is not a modern hockey, where everything is resolved at the international level. Agency activity, refereeing, financial issues, championships, conferences ... How can the old mentality, without foreign culture, without knowledge of the specifics going forward? All the best theoretical developments are abroad, not in Belarus.Therefore I have hope that Raczkowski, who has an experience in international sport through the National Olympic Committee, will move the frozen Hockey Federation. He is a dynamic young man looking to the future, ready to work."

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