LONDON: Japan’s Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation and a member of the International Olympic Committee, is running for the IOC presidency, the IOC said Monday.

Watanabe, 65, is one of the seven candidates announced by the IOC to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the committee.

The IOC will hold a presidential election in March 2025 as Bach’s term expires in June that year.

Bach, 70, is the ninth IOC president.

It is the first time that a Japanese has run for the presidency of the IOC, which was launched in 1894.

JIJI Press