Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

CLARKE

OSAKA, Japan:

JAMAICAN DAVIAN Clarke will be acting as an athletes representative for the next four years.

Clarke, 31, who has won several relay medals for Jamaica at major championships, was on Saturday elected among 12 persons to serve on the IAAF Athletes' Commission.

In a voting turnout which saw 61 per cent of the athletes present in Osaka for the 11th IAAF World Championships vote, Clarke secured the third highest number of votes - 892 - to be among the six members who will serve for four years.

Stefan Holm of Sweden (929 votes) and Koji Murofushi of Japan (913) finished ahead of Clarke while Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain (853), Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia (836) and Benjamin Limo of Kenya (835) are the other members to serve for four years.

The other persons, those with fewer votes - Christina Scherwin of Denmark (805), Manuel Martinez of Spain (793), Beatrice Faumuina of New Zealand (769), Adam Nelson of the U.S. (750), Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands (735) and Romain Mesnil of France (717) - will serve for two years.

"It's a great honour," said Clarke after the election. He promises to do his best for his fellow athletes.

"I am going to go out there and do all I can for the Jamaican athletes and athletes in the Caribbean and all over the world," he said.

Clarke said his role would be to bring to the IAAF board any discrepancies or any grievances that athletes stumbled upon during or outside of competition. "Not only grievances but anything that has to do with payment, how the competition is going etc.," he said.

According to Clarke, this will see him acting "like an intermediary between the people at the IAAF level and the athletes".