AUGUST 21 - BRITAIN'S treble gold medallist Chris Hoy (pictured) suffered a rare defeat when he failed to get a place on the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Athletes' Commission, it was announced today.

 

The cyclist, one of 29 candidates for the four positions, lost to South Korean taekwondo player Moon Dae-Sung, Russian swimmer Alexander Popov, German fencer Claudia Bokel and Cuban volleyball player Ruiz-Luaces Yumilka, who will all serve a term of eight years on the Commission which is chaired by former Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks, who succeeded Sergey Bubka earlier this month.

 

The 32-year-old from Edinburgh was seeking to join fellow Sir Craig Reedie, International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven and the Princess Royal as Britain's fourth IOC member.

 

But in the end his busy competition schedule probably cost him the opportunity of doing as much as he could to get elected as he was unable to devote as much time campaigning as some of his rivals.

 

The election was marred by the IOC having to give a warning to the United States Olympic Committee after they offered the 595 members of their team a $50 shopping voucher to ensure they voted in the election in which Julie Foudy, a former captain of the US football team, was standing.

 

Dae-Sung, the 31-year-old 2004 Olympic champion, polled the most votes with 3,220 and was followed by 37-year-old Popov, winner of four Olympic titles, who earned 1,903 to be re-elected to a Commission he has served on since 1996.

 

Bokel and Yumilka do not have Olympic titles to their names.

 

The best performance by the 35-year-old German was silver in the team epee competition four years ago while Yumilka was a member of the Cuban team that claimed volleyball bronze in Athens.

 

They earned 1,836 votes and 1,571 votes respectively.

 

The election, which has been taking place over the last 15 days in the Athletes Village in Beijing, Hong Kong and Qingdao as well as the remote football venues, saw 7,830 athletes vote, 71.6 per cent of those eligible, a significant increase on Athens where 54.5 per cent voted.

 

To be eligible an athlete had to have competed in either the 2004 or 2008 Games and never been found guilty of a doping offence in their career.