Coates fended off Danni Roche’s challenge to his AOC presidency by a vote of 58-35, and the trend of support continued through to the vice-presidential election.

His preferred candidates, Winter Games chef de mission Ian Chesterman and NSW Olympic Council president Helen Brownlee, were elected ahead of opposition candidate Andrew Plympton, who will now lose his seat on the AOC board.

Former Sailing Australia president Plympton has been the most outspoken critic of Coates on the board.

Although victorious today, Coates will be mindful that more than one-third of his electorate voted for his opponent Roche and he will need to follow through with changes to the AOC’s administrative structure and operations if he is to continue to enjoy the kind of support he has had for most of his 26-year tenure.

Coates has said that this four-year term will be his last.

His re-election — announced by Brownlee — was greeted with a spontaneous round of applause from the delegates.

Coates thanked them and then moved on to the next part of the election.

Chesterman took the first vice-president position with 48 votes ahead of Plympton (25) and Brownlee (20).

Chesterman’s votes then swung primarily to Brownlee in the second round and she won 54-38.

As the exhaustive ballot for executive positions began the Coates ticket continued to win the day.

Sailing Australia president Matt Allen and Athletics Australia president Mark Arbib were the first two elected.

Ahead of the president ballot, Chesterman had been expected to chair the key section of the meeting but Roche complained that he was not impartial after he supported Coates when questioned by the media a month ago.

Brownlee is also a Coates supporter but had not spoken publicly. However as every member of the executive voted, there was no option for an independent chair.

Accounting firm Ernst and Young scrutinised the election and counted the votes.

Roche had also complained that she was not permitted to address the meeting while Coates, as the incumbent president, chaired the first part of the meeting and gave addresses as both CEO and president.

He thanked former CEO Fiona de Jong, one of his recent critics, for her work but did not address any of the election issues in his review of the past year.