By Allieu Bockarie
232news
The Sierra Leone Gymnastic Federation last Thursday 3rd November presented medals won in three international competitions to the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone. Presenting the medals to the Chinese Embassy at the resident of the Chinese Ambassador at Wilberforce in Freetown, the president of the Sierra Leone Gymnastic Federation Annah Williams said if the federation is winning laurels today for Sierra Leone, it is because of the help that the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese government has been giving to the federation.
She went on that it all started when the Chinese Embassy awarded her a scholarship to go and do coaching course on Gymnastic in China.
Back home, she said she started training few number of girls and boys and that today Gymnastic is been trained nationwide in Sierra Leone with huge number of athletes-both girls and boys.
Apart from the president, over four of the gymnasia have also been in China for training courses. Few of them, she said recently represented Sierra Leone in the Islamic Games in Turkey and won bronze medals for Sierra Leone.
Few weeks back, the federation took part in the Union Africaine De Gynastique in Egypt and came out with bronze medals.
The federation also very recently represented Sierra Leone with one athlete in the FIC Tokyo 2022 PARKOUR World Championships in Japan.
The president told the Charge d’ Affairs of the Embassy who was representing the Ambassador that they are at the Embassy to show gratitude to the Chinese government for their good gesture to them.
According to her, had it not been the Chinese government they wouldn’t have been where they are today, pointing out that, the COVID 19 outbreak in the world led the Chinese to stop awarding scholarships to their athletes to train in China.
She went on that now that normalcy has gradually returned, they are appealing to the Chinese government to continue with their help to them.
She also appealed to the Chinese Embassy to help them build a gymnastic gym for the federation. Receiving the medals, the Charge d’ Affairs Le Xiaoyong said they were happy to receive the young gymnastic athletes together with their laurels.
He told them that the Ambassador was busy on other matters but said he will deliver their message to the Ambassador, noting that, the Ambassador in return will consult their government and Gymnastic schools in China to see if they could award them scholarships for training like they use to do.
On the issue of the Gymnastic gym, he said they will discuss it with Sports Ministry of Sierra Leone to see how they will go about it.
At the end, he officially dressed the athletes with the medals, encouraging them to go for more medals in future competitions.
