MADRID, Nov 18: Dick Pound is going out the way he wanted - with an elected leader to replace him as the world’s top anti-doping enforcer and a new set of global rules in place to intensify the war on drug cheats.

After eight years as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Pound marked his farewell late Saturday by ushering in former Australian politician John Fahey as his successor and securing ratification of a revised international code to fight performance-enhancing drugs.

“I leave behind an organization that works, and that has made a difference in the fight against doping in sport,” said Pound, who has headed the agency since its creation in 1999.

“Maybe 100 years from now, people will look back and say, ‘Oh my God, wasn’t that primitive - kind of like the drawing in caves that you find.’

“But a least it was a start. You had to make a start and I think the start has been good.”

Pound steps down officially at the end of the year, with Fahey taking over on Jan. 1.

But the handover turned into an messy fight as European ministers opposed to Fahey requested a six-month election postponement to find a new consensus candidate and offered former French Olympic hurdles champion Guy Drut as a last-minute challenger.

Pound rebuffed both moves and, in the end, the vote of the 35-member WADA foundation board went ahead Saturday with Fahey as the only candidate. He won by a show of hands, with four European government delegates abstaining.

Fahey, 62, will serve a three-year term. Arne Ljungqvist, a Swedish doping expert and chairman of the IOC medical commission, was elected WADA vice president. “I do not underestimate the task,” Fahey said. “I don’t see any magic solution. It is a challenge. I see no more important role in sport than to win this fight.”

Fahey’s first challenge will be the new WADA code. The new doping code will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2009.—AP