BUDAPEST, Hungary — Jamaica’s middle-distance runner Aisha Praught-Leer has been re-elected to the World Athletics Athletes’ Commission (WAAC) after the elections here during the World Athletics Championships.

Praught-Leer, who missed the last two World Championships, received 559 votes, the third most after former New Zealand’s shot put star Valerie Adams (627 votes) and France’s pole-vaulter Renaud Lavillenie (604 votes).

Spain’s Diego Garcia Carrera (553 votes), American Jasmine Todd (546 votes) and British sprinter Adam Gemili (542 votes) were also re-elected.

Six other athletes were voted on to the commission in 2022: Ivet Lalova-Collio of Bulgaria, Anna Ryzhykova (Ukraine), Lea Sprunger (Switzerland), Lisanne de Witte (Netherlands), Matthew Hughes (Canada), and Toshikazu Yamanishi (Japan).

According to a release from World Athletics, “all athletes accredited for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 had the right to vote in this year’s elections” and “to be eligible for election, athletes needed to have competed in at least one of the past two editions of the World Athletics Championships, or in the most recent Olympic Games, or be a competitor at this year’s World Athletics Championships”.

The release added: “This year’s elections introduced a new method of voting. For the first time, voting was done electronically, on portable voting devices, rather than via paper ballots. This transition to electronic voting is in line with World Athletics’ commitment to sustainability, and was introduced to enable a more efficient polling and counting process.”