Bermuda Olympic Association president Peter Dunne retained his position last night, narrowly defeating Katura Horton-Perinchief in a tight vote at the BOA general assembly.

Dunne prevailed 13-11 after ballots were cast by the 22 national sports governing bodies and two votes from the Athletes Commission.

After the vote, Horton-Perinchief reflected on coming close to unseating the incumbent.

“The exercise was exhilarating and, truly, I’m grateful to have had so much support from half the NSGBs,” she said. “What I do see is that it should be an eye-opener to the president to do more to earn the support of the NSGBs that saw fit to seek change.

“We have some work to do, clearly, but I am humbled by the support and I’m so thankful to be back on the BOA board as an executive member so I can continue the work.”

Dunne expressed satisfaction with the result, which he had anticipated would be close.

“I don’t mean to sound brash, but a win is a win,” Dunne said. “Our constitution is pretty clear that whoever gets the majority of the votes is the winner, so I will take that.

“I’ve talked to a lot of the sports over the last couple of weeks, and over time, and like most elections I made a checklist of where you think things will fall and I knew that on the night it would be very close.

“The best thing about this vote is that every sports body eligible to vote did just that and was represented. All 22 of them, and I don’t recall in my time ever having everyone there.”

Despite nearly half of the eligible organisations voting against him, Dunne is confident he is well-placed to lead the BOA through the next Olympic cycle.

“It’s not difficult at all,” Dunne said. “My position doesn’t require the individual mandate for everything that the organisation does. We had two people in the running who are highly qualified to fill the position, and I don’t think we’re too far apart.

“For the most part, the sports like what we’re doing, but there is always things we could be doing better and that we should be doing. My interest is in building coalitions.”

Three spots on the BOA executive board were also decided, with Horton-Perinchief, Donna Raynor and Julian Fletcher elected.