The chairman of the FEI Eventing Committee, Wayne Roycroft, has said that he will remain in the post until his tenure ends next year.
This follows rumours about his resignation which were circulating after the Olympic eventing medal ceremony in Hong Kong this week.
At a media briefing in Hong Kong today (Friday 15 August), he said: “I had a feeling that I may resign, but after a long conversation with Princess Haya [the FEI president] about a few issues that needed discussing, I’m looking at another 12 months.
“There were things which were in part to do with my own performance in the job, and issues that I perhaps should have been involved with and wasn’t.
“I also had to think about wearing two hats [as Australian team coach]. There have been misunderstandings, which were totally my fault, and there were issues which have now been solved. That’s all I’m prepared to say.”
Princess Haya said: “Wayne is being modest. He has championed so much for the FEI long before I was there. He deserves every accolade I can give him. We need him to finish the job he started.”
Wayne, an Olympic medallist himself, is a member of the Australia’s foremost eventing dynasty, the Roycroft family.
He is widely credited as the architect of Australia’s three successive Olympic team gold medals, and was elected chairman of the FEI Eventing Committee in 2000.