Former NACAC President Amadeo Francis is dead

Former President of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC), Amadeo Francis of Puerto Rico, is dead.

Francis, who was also a former vice-president of World Athletics, died on Saturday at the age of 92.

In a release yesterday, World Athletics said the organisation was deeply saddened to hear about the death of Francis.

The release added that Francis was born in the Virgin Islands in October 1931. Francis made Puerto Rico his home and represented that country internationally in the 400-metre hurdles, competing at the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games.

Francis served as president of NACAC for 20 years and was instrumental in the establishment of the Pan American Athletics Commission, serving the quadrennial Pan American Games.

According to World Athletics, Francis worked assiduously with South American Athletics long-serving president, Gesta de Melo of Brazil, and ensured that support was given to the innovative Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, the brainchild of Canada’s Cecil Smith, to render the biennial event sustainable.

He joined the World Athletics (then IAAF) Council in 1976 and became vice-president in 1999, serving in that role until 2007. He was awarded the IAAF Golden Order of Merit in 2007 in recognition of a lifetime’s dedication to the sport of athletics.

A noted economist, Francis held many positions in the government structure of Puerto Rico.