The President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sierra Leone, Dr Patrick Coker and scribe Joseph Nyande have attended the 17th Associations of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) General Assembly on 24-25 November 2015 at the Hilton Hotel, Le Morne in Mauritius
The meeting was organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) in collaboration with the Mauritius Olympic Committee (MOC). Two hundred (200) delegates from 54 member countries are expected to attend.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports provided full support to make this event a success.
In another development, the Association of National Olympic Committees, ANOCA, has approved $607, 000 that will be dispersed amongst African athletes who will qualify for Rio 2016.
The money to be distributed through the respective selected National Olympic Committees will be used solely for training and preparations to enhance the athletes’ chances of bagging medals in Brazil.
“The ANOCA Executive Committee meeting held a few days ago agreed to set aside this money as we seek to improve the results of African sportsmen and women during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games,” said Lassana Palenfo who chaired the Executive Committee meeting during the weekend, preceding the ANOCA General Assembly that opened on Tuesday.
The decision followed a review of Africa’s past Olympics participation which identified technical and training challenges, a decision that was accepted by the delegates attending the congress.
“It’s too late to form a committee now that can have any impact at the Rio Olympics games,” argued Gideon Sam, the President of the South Africa Olympic Committee, soon after the announcement to the congress.
“We should take it in good faith and we shall trust the Executive to take the right decisions and leave the politics out,” noted Alhaji Momodou Dibba, head of the Gambian Olympic Committee.
“We are being reproached for coming with this proposal. When we don’t do anything you reproach us. Yes, we are a few months away but it is not too late.”
“That is why we said for a start we shall only help support the already qualified athletes by sending them to high performance centres and hire coaches who can train them ,”insisted Palenfo.
By Bernard Turay
Thursday November 26, 2015
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