Chronicle-Journal
October 21, 1998
Thunder Bay Newspaper Article
The new president had a tough pull. It was nothing compared to what
he's had to deal with the past few months. One day after being named the World
Armsport Federation president, Fred Roy was ousted in the 90 kilogram right arm masters
competition Tuesday during the first day of action at the 1998 World Armsport Championship
being held at the Odeon Court Events Center. Roy was named interim President and
Willie Deneumoister of Belgium was appointed the federation's General Secretary at the
World Armsport Federation's annual meeting on Monday. These positions are interim
until the year 2000 election. Roy takes over from banished former president Bob
O'Leary of Scranton, Pa., while Deneumoister will take the place of Barij Baras Das of
India. The dismissals were carried out because the seven governing bodies in the
federation felt that there were illegal and undemocratic decisions being made. Four
of the continental bodies were in Canada. One of those decisions was awarding Cairo, Egypt
the World Championships after Thunder Bay had already been voted in as the hosts.
"(O'Leary and Das) expelled the whole European body from WAF". That's a
pretty stupid move said President Roy who won a pair of World titles in the Mexico City in
1985. It goes to show you what type of people we were dealing with. "It
was democratically voted on at last year's championships in India that we would have it
here (in Canada). Arbitrarily, they got it changed (to Cairo). That's only
one of the many reasons they were removed from their positions at Monday's
meeting". Seventeen countries and over 300 armwrestlers registered for the
Thunder Bay event which is recognized as the official World Championship.
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