Mutoya gives Region 5 LOC thumps up
Calistus Kolantsho | Friday December 14, 2018 12:33
Mutoya told Mmegi Sport on the sidelines of the Games this week that despite teething problems at the beginning of the competitions, everything is now running smoothly.
Mutoya said the games have got procedures and one of them is that a team is allowed into the Games Village after fulfilling all the requirements. “One of the requirements is that they have completed their accreditation process, have submitted their permits and other documentation. There must be verification when teams arrive for the safety of the athletes. It is a thorough process,” he said.
“These are age group games and what we are particular about is to ensure that we mitigate and prevent age cheating.” Mutoya said they could not rush the process just for the comfort and convenience.
He said they wanted to make sure that the person submitting the documents is a real one. “The system that we have has to dispense that. If you have three countries arriving at the same time, you cannot serve them as quickly as people would like and that would make some people to think there are logistical problems,” he said. Mutoya said they had to react swiftly to the accommodation issue by giving teams beds outside the athletes’ village.
Meanwhile, Mutoya said six of the nine codes are qualifiers for major international championships being swimming (FINA world championships), athletics (Africa junior championships), basketball (FIBA under 16 championships), tennis (ITF ranking event), judo (Africa junior championship) and football is AFCON under 17 preparations. Only netball, football and boxing that are not qualifiers. “That is why Tanzania is here because they are hosting the AFCON Under-17 championship next year.
We have aligned these games to high performance. The games address infrastructure development, create a platform for competition for athletes as they launch their careers and as a radar for high performance,” Mutoya said.
At a special meeting in 1999 in South Africa, the AUSC Region 5 Council of Ministers agreed that the hosting of the Games should be compulsory and rotational, and shall be the basis of the chairmanship of the council of ministers.
Mutoya said the competition during the games has improved. Some of the products of these games are Caster Semenya (2008), Wayde van Niekerk (2010), Nijel Amos (2012) and Naomi Ruele (2014).