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Obituary – Jean Pissoort
Jean Pissoort from Belgium, General
Treasurer of the USPE from 1968 to 1984
is dead.
He passed away at the age of 86 years in
Brussels on 22 November 2004.
We knew him as an outstanding member
of the Executive Committee and a good
friend. It was always a great pleasure to
work with him, not only for the efficient
way he worked, but particularly for his
personal qualities.
It is a great loss to all who knew him. He
will be sorely missed.
All of us at USPE would like to convey
our sincere sympathies to his family.
We will not forget him.
31st Congress of the USPE
For the first time in its 54-year history, the
European Police Sports Association has a
female Vice President. On 16 October at
the 31st USPE Congress in Warsaw that
was very well organised by our Polish
friends, Lena Thurson from Sweden was
elected to this post, prevailing over two
other male candidates. She received a
majority of 58 votes, Dr. Josef Haupt from
the Czech Republic was supported by 14
votes, while the previous Vice President
Wlodzimierz Cias from Poland came in
third with 9 votes in favour. Before, Jean-
Pierre Havrin from France had been reelected
for another 4-year tenure of office.
Gérald Hagenlocher from Switzerland will
be General Treasurer for a period of four
more years. All 81 delegates cast their
votes in favour of him, after Wlodzimierz
Cias had withdrawn his candidacy.
Liusien Velchev from Bulgaria, Luc
Smyers from Belgium and Dr. Youri
Podlipniak from Russia were elected committee
members. Thus, the Executive
Committee of the USPE is composed of
the following persons:
President
Jean-Pierre Havrin France
Vice-President
Lena Thuresson Sweden
Vice-President
Ioannis Karapanagos Greece
General Treasurer
Gérald Hagenlocher Switzerland
Secretary General
Dietmar Schönhoff Germany
Committee Member
Kees ten Cate Netherlands
Committee Member
Zoran Milic Serbia and Montenegro
Committee Member
Dr. Youri Podlipniak Russia
Committee Member
Luc Smeyers Belgium
Committee Member
Liusien Velchev Bulgaria
After the elections, the Technical Commission
comprises the following members:
Brian Brunton
Ireland Track and field
Crosscountry
Marius Cata-Chitiga
Romania Wrestling/ Triathlon
Dominique Demoen
France Volleyball /Judo
Konstantin Ivanov
Russia Shooting/Marathon
Alexandros Kappis
Greece Cycling/Skiing
Stefan Kronenberg
Germany Swimming/Table tennis
Ivar Thoresen
Norway Football/Handball
Bela Peter Zsigmond
United Kingdom Basketball /Tennis
Ed Riewald from the Netherlands and Leif
Andersen from Sweden were elected new
auditors.
The draft article on the institution of a
Council of Honorary Members that had
been submitted to the Congress did not
receive the necessary majority of the
votes. Instead, a two-thirds majority came
out in favour of amending Article 23 of
the Statutes that now stipulates that all
athletes participating in future European
Police Championships must have a minimum
age of 18. At the request of Sweden,
the decision to permit police students to
participate in championships in the future
was taken. The reason for this motion was
that up to that point, all athletes entering
an EPC had been asked to produce their
official police ID as well as their passport
in order to verify their eligibility for start.
In Scandinavian countries, however, police
students in their first year of training
are not issued an official police ID so that
compared with other countries that hand
out official IDs to their students at the
beginning of their police training, the
Scandinavian countries had been at a
disadvantage.
The most important motion on amending
the Rules and Regulations referred to the
payment of EPC entry fees. Up to that
point it had been required to pay an entry
fee to the organising member association
for each participant exceeding half of the
maximum number of participants laid
down in the Competition Rules. As a consequence,
some countries merely sent as
many as half of the maximum admissible
number of participants to various EPCs to
get round the payment of fees. Now the
Congress decided that entry fees are to be
paid for each participant exceeding the
number of half of the registered entrants.
Since all efforts to find an organiser for
the 2006 EPC Track and Field/Police
Pentathlon decided by the 2002 Congress
in Düsseldorf had been of no avail,
Switzerland had tabled the motion to split
up this EPC. Track and field was to take
place in the Czech Republic in 2006,
while police pentathlon would take place
in Switzerland. The majority of the delegates
came out against this motion.
Thereupon the Executive Committee one
more time, as in Düsseldorf in 2002, proposed
the motion to cross police pentathlon
off the list of official USPE sports
disciplines. This motion was adopted by a
large majority of the votes.
Furthermore, the motion to honour the
best European female police officer, the
best male police officer as well as the best
police team on the occasion of future
USPE Congresses was also adopted.
Finally, the Congress also decided to join
the World Anti-Doping Code, authorising
the Executive Committee to draw up a
specific USPE procedure including the
composition of the respective disciplinary
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