The Briton, who has already been President for more than a quarter of a century since the ECA was founded in 1993, stood unopposed for the first time in the Serbian capital.

“This is my life,” he said.

“I have spent a long time building the European Canoe Association to the major thing it is right now.

“The future is very positive but as [International Canoe Federation] President [Jose] Perurena announced earlier, there are some big changes for us to overcome about the Olympic programme and we need to focus our attention on that now.”

Various other elections were held for positions across the ECA Board, with the Czech Republic’s Jaroslav Pollert re-elected as vice president.

He stood against Norway’s Geir Kvillum and retained his position by 19 votes to 13.

As the only candidate, Bulgaria’s Evelina Petrova was elected as ECA auditor, while Andrej Jelenc, Jovana Stanojevic and Manuela Gawehn were elected Board members.

Slovenia’s Jelenc and Gawehn from Germany were both re-elected with 31 and 19 votes, respectively, while Stanojevic from Serbia was elected for the first time with 21 votes.

Russia’s Elena Iskhakova and Marta Felpeto Lamas from Spain both missed out.

In a statement, the ECA said Gawehn had withdrawn her candidacy to be a representative at the ICF due to her position on their Wildwater Canoeing Committee, meaning Stanojevic and Jelenc will join ECA President Woods and secretary general Branko Lovric as Europe’s representatives.

Outside of the elections, a proposal was approved to limit the number of consecutive terms any individual can hold a position to three.

The idea was first put forward by British Canoeing.