Ximena Restrepo of Chile has been appointed as senior vice-president of World Athletics ©Getty Images

World Athletics has appointed Chilean official Ximena Restrepo as its senior vice-president here, President Sebastian Coe has revealed.

Restrepo, an Olympic 400 metres bronze medallist with Colombia at Barcelona 1992, had polled the most votes in last week's election at the Congress in Budapest.

She succeeds Sergey Bubka, who had held the role since losing the 2015 Presidential election to Coe but stood down this year, following criticism in his native Ukraine for a failure to condemn Russia's invasion in February 2022 and revelations his family business has supplied petrol in the occupied regions of his country.

Restrepo is the first female candidate to hold the senior vice-presidential role, following on from Council elections in which World Athletics achieved gender equity four years ahead of schedule.

She had been the first woman to become vice-president when she was elected in 2019.

It means she would be most likely to take over as head of World Athletics should Briton Coe launch a successful bid to succeed Thomas Bach as International Olympic Committee President in 2025.

Restrepo competed for Colombia during her sporting career, but has lived in Chile for more than 30 years and is nationalised in the country.

Chile's Ximena Restrepo, right, has been appointed as World Athletics senior vice-president, although had already begun returning home from Budapest when the decision was made ©Getty Images
Chile's Ximena Restrepo, right, has been appointed as World Athletics senior vice-president, although had already begun returning home from Budapest when the decision was made ©Getty Images

German official Bach attended the first meeting of the new Council today.

Coe revealed Restrepo had began travelling home from the World Championships when the decision was made, but is expected to take the number two position on the Council.

"After the opening salvos of the Council meeting when we got down to the guts of the business, I appointed Ximena Restrepo from Chile as my senior vice-president for the coming four years," Coe revealed.

"The only challenge we have is I didn't actually alert her to that until she got on the plane to Santiago, so somewhere mid-air she is probably going to hear this news at some stage, and I hope they don't suddenly decide to turn the plane around, but I am sure she will accept.

"It was met with unanimous support."

Spain’s Raúl Chapado, India’s Adille Sumariwalla and Kenya’s Jackson Tuwei were also elected as vice-presidents at the Congress in Budapest, with Norfolk Islands' Geoff Gardner and Saudi Arabia's Nawaf Bin Mohammed Al Saud failing in their attempts to secure re-election.