Left to right (seated) - Clive Grinaker, Col Ahmed Malboum Kalkaba and Leonard Chuene - signing of CAA sponsorship agreement. From left (standing) - Vivian Gungram & Dan Ngerem (© Ouma)
Athletics on the African continent will never be the same following the creation of the Africa Athletics Foundation.
The Africa Athletics Confederation (AAC) has established the foundation as a medium through which to drive an African athletics renaissance.
Spearheaded by Regional Development Centres, the broad strategy is two fold. Firstly to accelerate the development of the sports at a continental grassroots level. Secondly, to provide a nucleus from which to build a sustainable elite athletics competition circuit in Africa.
"Our vision is to sustain athletics as the continent's most popular individual sport.” the Africa Athletics Confederation President Hamad Kalkaba Malboum explained yesterday (10 November) at the signing of a major sponsorship agreement with the Grinaker corporation.
”We seek to enable our elite athletes to derive a decent livelihood here at home. We hope this will stem the tide of some of our best athletes seeking citizenship in Europe. At the same time we aim to introduce professionalism in the management of the sport throughout the continent."
The Africa Athletics Foundation headquarters will be located in Port Louis, Mauritius. While its vision will be driven from five Regional Athletics Track Clubs in Abuja Nigeria, Cairo Egypt, Dakar Senegal, Johannesburg South Africa, and Nairobi Kenya.
IAAF President Lamine Diack, who was founding AAC President and remains the Confederation's Honorary Life President, confirmed that “the Regional Development Centres will provide the expertise necessary to uplift the quality of administration, as well as the technical skills in coaching and officiating."
A major challenge facing the Africa Athletics Foundation is to improve the quality of the infrastructure necessary to enable the creation of a Grand Prix Circuit. This is designed to see the continent's best athletes regularly compete on home soil. To get this process underway, major track and field meetings will be staged in Dakar, Abuja, Rabat, Johannesburg, and Nairobi from next year.
The continental body will also honour those who have excelled in the sports on the global stage. “We will inaugurate an Africa Athletics Hall of Fame. Sons and daughters of Africa who have excelled at the Olympics, the World Athletics Champions and even those who have set world records have yet to receive adequate recognition here at home. We will launch the Hall of Fame on March 11 in Abuja," said Colonel Malboum.
The Africa Athletics Confederation Marketing Commission Chairman Dan Ngerem, says this new initiative is the most important paradigm shift in the sport since the Africa Athletics Confederation was established in 1973. Mr Negrem who is also the Vice President of the Africa Athletics Foundation urged the corporate world on the continent and beyond, to invest in the project.