The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) recently organised a seminar for Chefs de Mission of various delegations that will take part in the 2nd Youth Olympic Games (YOGs) scheduled for Gaborone, capital city of Botswana, from May 22 – 31, 2014.
The seminar, which took place December 11-12, 2013 at the University of Gaborone (UB), with 43 Chefs de Mission in attendance, was organised in collaboration with the Botswana African Youth Games Organising Committee (BAYGOC).
Botswana’s Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Honourable Shaw Kgathi, set the pace, underscoring in his opening address that the Games, the greatest sports event to be hosted by their country, were a priority for his country’s government, which resolved to leave no stone unturned to ensure total success.
The event was also graced by the President of [link id=”313″ tax=”post_tag” text=”ANOCA” target=”_blank”], Intendant General Lassana Palenfo, together with his 2nd Vice, Joao Manuel Da Costa Alegre.
The main thrust of the seminar was to brief the CDM on Botswana’s readiness to host the Games and update them on the practical modalities, which was done by officials of various organising commissions. To this end, each of them, after presenting their papers, held fruitful discussions with participants, who sought further information on various organisational aspects of the event.
The technical Director of ANOCA presented a paper, which dwelled on the role and responsibilities of Chef de Mission; this was all the more necessary, given that only 4 of the 43 participants were Chefs de Mission during the maiden edition of the AYGs in 2010.
Gaborone 2014, under the theme: ‘Uniting African Youth, Catalysing Botswana’s Economic Diversification’, will be used to promote [link id=”96″ tax=”category” text=”Botswana” target=”_blank”] as a continental centre of excellence in many areas such as health, education and tourism.
The University of Gaborone will host the Games Village and the youth athletes will compete in the following sports disciplines: athletics, badminton, canoeing, basketball, boxing, cycling, fencing, football, golf, judo, karate, netball, rowing, rugby, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, lawn tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting and fencing.
Meet The Authors
Yomog Meje is a former Nigerian junior athlete and the Associate editor at Athletics Africa.
.png)
