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By Allieu Bockarie
The new executive of the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone (NOC-SLE) on Saturday January 28 2023 held its first meeting with their members at the OlympAfrica Centre, Goderich in Freetown.
The NOC/CGA-SLE’s President Prince Vandy Suallay in his statement welcomed the various sporting disciplines and give reason why they are meeting.
He told them that he is excited and still grateful for the outcome of the last election that should be behind them as they go forward the reason he said why the NOC belong to all of them as they are all winners. He went on that the member associations formed the NOC and the CGA and that is the message and by implications that is why he sermon this meeting. He went on that they have to move forward as a team, and to come together it’s very important to recognize each other.
Sualley disclosed the latest development in the committee which involves the three appointments been made by the new executive which includes the Marketing and Development Committee, headed by Ahmed Khanou, the President of the National Volleyball Federation, Ethics and Legal Commission -Martin Bangura, the President of the Sierra Leone Athletics Association and Sustainability and environmental Commissioner-Frank Turay.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NOC/CGA-SLE’s Joseph Nyande noted that he was elated to have the membership as a sport family, adding they are all in the basket to move forward towards the development sports in Sierra Leone. He said am sure it was an expanded effort for the very first time and he think if they continue to move along like this we would be able to achieve their goal. The President he said was talking about the opportunities that they have in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association of Sierra Leone. He went on that a lot had happen over the years where individuals and members of the association shy away from coming to the Olympic Headquarter at Howe Street, I think the best thing you could do is to come and engage us,” he stated.
He though said that It’s doesn’t mean that the previous executive to which they belong did not do much but they want to improve on that; that is the status quo.
Nyande said they normally do that to be able to look back at what they have done and try to find ways and means. Although he said they went through a lot in the past years to adjust themselves but they were able to sort out things and they went straight to the continental programmes. He went on that there was a carryover last year so they are going to continue with that carryover to see what program they are going to have this year.
The new Chef De Mission, Yayah Koroma said he has a new task and it’s a task that requires the cooperation of all. He went on that the work of the Chef De Mission is not an individual job, it’s a job that requires collaboration especially with the technical heads all the associations and that is why if they should have better representations in international games it has to be the athletes and it also has to be the technical heads because when they have a very good technical team it will ensure they have a very good athletes representation out there. The new Chef De Mission went on that their focus now is not only to participate, the focus is to go out there and compete. We want to see a situation where Sierra Leone goes out there and win medals that will be a big plus and not just only for NOC or the individual Associations but for the Country, a reason he said he has decided to meet with Presidents of associations and asked them to submit the names of their technical heads.
Talking about upcoming Games, Koroma revealed that there will be four major Games coming up and the highest among them is the African Youth Games which will be held in Tunisia from 24th to 30th June this year, the African Beach Games which is a qualifications for some associations such as the 4 on 4 Beach Volleyball, Handball and Air Badminton this is a qualifications will start from the 5th to 12th August this year.
He outlines the list of Sports for the African Beach Games which includes 13 Sports, the list of the invited Sports that will participate in the African Beach Games are Beach Volleyball 4×4, Beach Handball, Beach Soccer, Beach Tennis, Air Badminton, Basketball 3 on 3, free water swimming, rowing, baseball 5×5 and Teqball this he said are the sporting disciplines that have been invited to participate in the African Beach Games.
“The Trinbago 2023 which is the Youth Commonwealth Games will be held in Trinidad and Tobago from the 4th to 11th August 2023. Seven sporting disciplines he said were invited to participate in the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games. Sierra Leone was awarded with a quota of 7 athletes and 4 officials. Among them are Athletics, Swimming, Cycling, Triathlon, Beach Volleyball, Rugby Seven so four athletes from athletics, 2 to Swimming and 1 to Triathlon that makes these total of seven excluding the team sports, that is for Volleyball and Handball. Yayah said they were asked to submit an interest by the end of this month the quota for team sports which they have shared with all to know whether their team sports have been accepted to take part or not. We are waiting for that correspondent from the Commonwealth Games Association as far as the Beach Volleyball and Rugby are concern Yayah said.
For Bali Games 2023 the World Beach Games in Indonesia it will start from the 5th to 12th 2023 August, it is also a qualification Tournament for the difference sports that are involve in the List of Sports: Aquarium, Air Badminton, Basketball 3×3 U-23, Beach Tennis, Beach Soccer, Karate individual Kata Open, Water Swimming and Surfing The international Federation are the ones who set up the qualifications system and these qualifications system are shared with the various associations,” the Chef De Mission concludes.
