"The committee of ministers of the Council of Europe approved today the nomination of Witold Banka, minister for sport and tourism of Poland, as single European candidate to the post of president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," the council, tasked with nominating Europe's candidate, said in a statement. The 34-year-old former sprinter, a member of the Polish parliament since 2015, won a poll held at the council in January, taking 28 votes to the 16 for current WADA vice-president, Norwegian government minister Linda Helleland, according to several sources. Belgian politician Philippe Muyters came a distant third with five votes.
Banka, bidding for control of the Montreal-based WADA, a foundation originally established by the International Olympic Committee, told AFP last June he would seek unity between federations and governments to create a more effective anti-doping platform.
Banka is also calling for a new approach to the thorny question of doping in Russia, where the government was singled out in the 2015 McLaren report for its state-sponsored doping programme.
But Banka said his main concern was to set up a balanced dope testing regime across world sport.
The election for the WADA presidency will be held in November in the Polish city of Katowice, where the successor to Briton Craig Reedie, in power since 2013, will be chosen. Candidates must announce their bids by May 2019 and so far only one other hopeful, former Dominican swimmer Marcos Diaz, a WADA executive committee member, has said he will run.