Former Olympic champion, Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen is BWF new president

Poul-Erik Hoyer Larsen, the 1996 Summer Olympics men's singles gold medalsist, has been elected as the new Badminton World Federation (BWF) president.

The Dane replaces South Korea's Kang-Young Joong who vacated the post after eight years. He was elected by the BWF's voting members at its 74th Annual General Meeting (AGM) here today.

He will have four years (2013-2017) to revive the sport after polling 145 votes to his challenger, Indonesian Justian Suhandinata's 120.

"I do not want to go into more details on what is the biggest challenge I have to face for the next four years but one of my focus areas will be the development of this sport," he said after winning the election.

Hoyer whose mission is to make badminton a high quality sport in the world, promised bring it to be among the top ten world class sports.

"I cherish the opportunity as a president and I am looking forward to work as a team. I want to say thank you to all council members to have a very democratic and transparent election," he said.

When asked about status of BWF's office in Kuala Lumpur, he said they (members) never talked about moving the office from Malaysia to any other place (in Europe) yet and that it will stay put in the current location.

Gustavo Salazar Delgado of Peru defeated incumbent deputy president Paisan Rangsikitpho of Thailand for that position.