Many VIPS recently traveled to Bangkok recently to be part of the IFMA 2019 elections. The three main positions of stood unopposed and the General Assembly unanimously elected and confirmed Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan as IFMA President, Stephan Fox and Secretary General and Charissa Tynan as Director. In addition, the unification of IFMA and WMC, Somsak Lesawatrakul was voted in as VP of IFMA, together with the five heads of the Continental Federations. The last VP position will be elected by the Executive Committee at its next meeting. All the commissions are now confirming their representatives for the Committee.

At the elections, special presentations were also made on upcoming events in 2020 & 2021 namely the World Combat Games and World Games. UTS CEO Julia Govinden made a report on United Through Sports and the ongoing cooperation with IFMA.

In other news, 102 participating countries recently came to the IFMA World Championships 2019 at the end of July. This year was the biggest in the history of IFMA.

The final competition days were heated between the three leading teams, the home country Thailand, Russia and Ukraine. The atmosphere in the stadium was electrifying especially if Russia would win as this would be the first time the trophy would move outside of Thailand. After the closing bouts it was team Russia which came out victorious winning the overall elite division with team Thailand coming second.

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