A number of new Asian Rugby Federations presidents have been confirmed, with changes at board levels also being announced.
Asia Rugby took to social media to congratulate a number of the Unions on the appointments.
Asian Rugby Federations presidents
Iran Rugby Association
Mir Mehdi Hosseini is the new President of the Iran Rugby Association.
In early March 2021, it was confirmed that Dr Hassan Mirzaaghbeik, who had been the President of Iran Rugby, was retiring. Asia Rugby said at the time “Asia Rugby is sad to hear about the retirement of Dr Hassan Mirzaaghbeik as President of Iran Rugby who has been the driving force behind the growth of Rugby in Iran. Asia Rugby wishes him the best of luck for the future.”
Nahid Biyarjomandi is also a Board member and Head of the Development Committee of Iran Rugby. She is also an Asia Rugby Executive Committee member and first deputy of Asia Women’s Advisory Committee. Nahid was acknowledged in 2019 as one of World Rugby’s Unstoppables and in 2021 was announced as one of only 12 World Rugby 2021 Executive Leadership Scholarship recipients.
Iran Rugby Federation became a World Rugby Full Member in late 2020.
Image Credit: Asia Rugby – Mir Mehdi Hosseini is the new President of the Iran Rugby Association.
Korea Rugby Union
In March 2021, Asia Rugby thanked Mr Sung Hoon Park for his services to Asia Rugby and “wished him the best of luck in his future endeavours.” He was part of the newly announced Asia Rugby Executive Committee due to take the game forward from 2021-2024, announced as recently as December 2020.
Shortly thereafter, Jaesub Choi was co-opted by Asia Rugby to fill a vacancy on the Executive Committee with immediate effect on March 5, 2021. This follows the Korea Rugby Association voting in its own Committee in late February.
The Korean Rugby Association had been running an online questionnaire to select a new logo too.
Kazakhstan Rugby
Aigul Jartybayeva has been elected as President of Kazakhstan Rugby and is one of the few women in the main leadership role at a union in Asia.
The Kazakhstan women’s rugby team still has a chance to qualify for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 as they will play Japan and Hong Kong in the qualifiers. The team is coached by Anna Yakovleva who was also announced as one of the top 15 Asia Rugby Unstoppables.
Image Credit: Asia Rugby – Aigul Jartybayeva has been elected as President of Kazakhstan Rugby
Pakistan Rugby Union
Arif Saeed has been re-elected as the President of the Pakistan Rugby Union and Fawzi Khawaja were re-elected as chairman of the PRU for the next four-year term.
Arif Saeed said: “Pakistan Rugby Union has been working well at grassroots level for the last few years, which has started yielding fruit as it has helped us a lot in increasing the number of players and coaches to the larger extent. Our work at the grassroots level across Pakistan has been applauded by World Rugby and Asia Rugby as well.”
Other elected PRU office-bearers are Rizwan Ur Rab Malik, Yahya Bhatti, Shahzad Sultan AIG (vice presidents), Haroon Naseem (treasurer) and Ms Shireen Hina (women representative).
Mongolia Rugby Football Union
Asia Rugby Unions
- Rugby in Iran: Growing the game.
- Karina Soerjanatamihardja: Growth of Women’s Rugby in Indonesia.
- Steven Rodaway: Singapore Sevens General Manager.
- Social Chinese Rugby in 2021.
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