Dongguan (China), May 13 (IANS): Indian-origin shuttler Prakash Vijayanath were pipped by Japan's Shintaro Ikeda and Dutch Koen Ridder, who were elected as the new members of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Athletes’ Commission here.

They will join Chinese Tang Yuanting - elected automatically as the lone female nominee - in serving four-year terms on the player's organisation. Ikeda and Ridder beat three other male nominees in voting which took place on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the Sudirman Cup.

Ikeda topped with 69 votes, Ridder got 65, South Korean Lee Yong Dae 53, South African Vijayanath 53 and China's Zhang Nan 33. Regulations stipulate the male with highest number of votes, the female with the highest number of votes and then the person with the next highest number of votes (male or female) win the three places.

The three will join Yuhan Tan (Belgium), Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (Denmark) and Greysia Polii (Indonesia) who are halfway through their four years on the Athletes’ Commission which operates on a rotational basis with elections every two years. Pedro Yang is an ex-officio member of the commission.

“The commission serves an important purpose within the BWF as it represents one of badminton’s key stakeholder groups - the players,” BWF Secretary General Thomas Lund said.