Vilnius, 17th October Daina Gudzineviciute, an Olympic shooting champion, has been elected President of the National Olympic Committee of Lithuania. President Arturas Poviliunas having decided not to stand again after 24 years in office, elections at the General Assembly held on the 12th of October saw Gudzineviciute prevail against another Olympian, Virgilijus Alekna.
It was at Sydney 2000, where women’s trap shooting was introduced for the first time, that Daina Gudzineviciute won a first gold medal for her country.
The Assembly also elected the members of the Executive Committee, inviting Valentinas Paketuras to be Secretary General.
Irena Degutiene, the President of the Seimas, the Lithuanian Parliament, congratulated the new head of the NOC and her team, and also thanked Poviliunas, who was elected Honorary President, for his long standing service towards Lithuanian sport and the community as a whole.
During his stint as NOC President, Arturas Poviliunas also played an active role within the European association of NOCs, as Member of the EOC’s Executive Committee from 1995 to 2001, and as its representative within ANOC, the worldwide association of NOCs, from 2002 to 2010. In 2009, in recognition of his merits as a sports leader, he was bestowed the EOC Olympic Laurels.