By Allieu Bockarie
232news The President elect of the National Olympic Committee in Sierra Leone Prince Vandi Sualley has said when he takes over the baton from his predecessor Dr. Patrick Coker he will start from where Coker stopped. He expressed hope that he and his executive will move faster and higher to take NOC to a different level. Prince went on that he has confident and trust in the new executive body to work diligently with him to develop the various Olympic sports. He noted that he had once worked with some of the executive members in the past executive and the others he said are his colleague association presidents as such he said they are not new to him. He went on that their hard work in the past executive and their work in their various associations gave confidence to the delegates to vote for them. To start their work proper he said they are first going to meet with all Presidents, Secretary Generals and Technical heads of all the associations and call on them to turn to a new page and work with the new executive as election has come and gone. To meet with the IOC 30% quota in the executive he said they are going to co-opt two women into the executive as presently they only have one in the executive. He went on that they already have the names of the two women but said they want to go through the process before they will be included in January next year when they too will take up office. Prince said the committee is getting bigger with lots of sports and commission now involve as such he said they are going to form different committees like fund raising and several others to make the work easier. Already he said they have appointed the former Secretary General Joseph Nyande as the new CEO whom he said have fast experience to do the administrative work well. The executive have also appointed Yayah Koroma as the new Chef De Mission of NOCSLE. Prince reaffirmed that his executive will work and improve on the legacy of Dr. Coker’s executive. His executive he said will be paying much attention to the athletes to retain them after international competitions so that they will be mature enough to win medals in the next international games. By so doing he said they will be also working with the Ministry of Education and other government agencies to cater for scholarships to study at home and abroad to enable the athletes acquire higher education which can courage them that they have future even after their sports career. He cited example on athletes who went to the Commonwealth and Olympic Games years back and decided not to return. These athletes he said if they would have retained them for like four years and above today with their vast experience they will win medals for the country. He cited countries like Jamaica, USA, England, Kenya, Ethiopia and many more s case studies that have athletes that are doing well because they have vast experience in the games. He said one good thing his predecessor did was to enable him to get use to the international executive members like IOC and ANOCA executive members which he said will make their relationship with them become more tight than before.
