BEVERLY HILLS, May 31, (THEWILL) – After the African Athletics Championships of 2021 scheduled for Algiers, in Algeria, were postponed, putting the aspirations of many African athletes intending to use the competition as a qualifying event for the oncoming Tokyo Olympics in jeopardy, Nigeria had to step in.
As THEWILL reported on Friday, May 21, Tunisia and Zambia also submitted their hosting bids as well as Nigeria, which demonstrated the high African interest in seeing the Championships take place in time for the Olympics after Algeria indefinitely postponed staging the biennial event for a third time earlier this month because of COVID-19 concerns.
As Nigeria was picked in the final determination of hosts by the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), the event will now hold in Lagos from June 23 to 27. This is timely because it provides athletes desirous to make it to Tokyo 2020 the qualifying opportunity ahead of the June 29 window deadline for qualifiers.
The final decision to pick Nigeria was resolved after Sunday Dare, Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development and Kalkaba Malboum, the President of the CAA, met in Cairo to discuss hosting details of the event that Nigeria last hosted in 2018 in the city of Asaba. Their meeting coincided with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa General Assembly.
At the end of their deliberations, Dare and Malboum released a joint statement that gave Nigeria the hosting rights. It read in part, “The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Confederation of African Athletics are fully committed and working in synergy towards the delivery of a world-class Championships.
“In the coming days, more comprehensive details regarding the successful hosting of the Championships in Lagos, Nigeria will be made public.”
Due to the suspension of all sporting activities in 2020, the biennial event, that meets the standard for Olympics qualification, was rescheduled from last year for June 1 to 5 in Oran, a port city in northwestern Algeria and the country’s second largest city before being moved again to June 22 to 26 in Algiers.
However, just as athletes were making final plans to join their competitors in Algiers, the Algerian Ministry of Youth and Sports said on May 14 that a further postponement was required “due to the health situation, marked by a resurgence in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the risk of circulation of new variants”.
This was why alternative hosts became necessary to make sure the Championships were held, athletes could compete and that those who did enough to qualify were able to book their places at the spectacular showpiece of sports that will be the Tokyo Games.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
