AP Sources: Ng Ser Miang to run for IOC president
AP Sources: Singapore member Ng Ser Miang to announce candidacy for IOC president
FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, Singapore Youth Olympic Committee Chairman and IOC Vice-President, Ng Ser Miang arrives at the Singapore Changi Airport with a safety lantern containing the Youth Olympic flame. Singapore’s Ng Ser Miang is set to become the second declared candidate in the race to succeed Jacques Rogge as president of the IOC. everal officials with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, that the 64-year-old Ng will formally announce his candidacy in Paris on Thursday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn’t been made yet. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
LONDON (AP) -- Singapore's Ng Ser Miang is set to become the second declared candidate in the race to succeed Jacques Rogge as president of the IOC.
Several officials with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the 64-year-old Ng will formally announce his candidacy in Paris on Thursday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement hasn't been made yet.
Ng, an IOC vice president, chaired the organizing committee of the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010.
German IOC vice president Thomas Bach announced his candidacy last Thursday in Frankfurt.
Rogge, who succeeded Juan Antonio Samaranch in 2001, steps down on Sept. 10 after 12 years at the helm of the International Olympic Committee.
Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, C.K. Wu of Taiwan and Sergei Bubka of Ukraine are among other likely contenders for the presidency.
The officials told the AP that Ng was in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Monday to notify Rogge of his decision.
Ng has been an IOC member since 1998 and has served on the policy-making executive board since 2005 and as a vice president since 2009. He has been Singapore's ambassador to Norway since 2001 and is a former vice president of the international sailing federation.
Ng will be seen as a candidate from Asia, a continent with growing economic, political and sporting influence on the world stage.
Bach, a 59-year-old German lawyer, has been considered the front-runner in the IOC race. The former Olympic fencing gold medalist has served on the IOC executive board as a regular member or vice president since 1996.
The official deadline for candidacies is June 10, exactly three months before the election in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
An unofficial election campaign has been going on for months, with Bach, Ng and other prospective candidates traveling the world to attend various Olympic gatherings to talk to members.
An announcement is likely by the end of the month from Carrion, a former executive board member who heads the IOC's finance and audit commissions.
Also expected to declare are Bubka, the former pole vault champion who still holds the world record, and Wu, head of the international amateur boxing federation.
Two Swiss members, Rene Fasel and Denis Oswald, have been weighing their options. Fasel is president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Oswald is the former longtime head of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations. It is unlikely both will run.
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