Former WADA chief Pound misses out on CAS presidency

By Mark Ledsom

BERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Former anti-doping chief Dick Pound failed to secure sport's highest judicial position on Thursday when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) elected Italian lawyer Mino Auletta as its new president.

"It's not the end of the world for me, but of course I would rather have won the gold medal than the silver," Canadian lawyer Pound said following the vote in Monte Carlo.

The conservative 78-year-old Auletta, who has served as acting president since the death of the court's original president Keba Mbaye in January 2007, will now remain in office until the current four-year term finishes at the end of 2010.

Pound, whose eight-year term as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) finished in November 2007, was the most high-profile of the four candidates standing for the CAS presidency.

Speaking to Reuters by telephone on Thursday, Pound said he lost out to Auletta in a straight majority vote by the court's 19-member governing body -- the International Council or ICAS -- after the other two candidates had been eliminated.

"I let my name go forward as I thought I was the best to do the job but that was clearly not the view of the majority," said Pound.

CAS serves as the final court of appeal for most of the major international sporting bodies including all the Olympic sports federations.

Often having the final say in high-profile cases involving doping, eligibility for competitions and breaches of contract, the court relies heavily on a reputation for discretion and impartiality.