By Sahr Morris Jnr
Sierra Leone’s newly appointed new Chef De Mission, Yayah Koroma has sent a strong message to National Associations, Technical officials and athletes ahead of several international games.
While addressing the President and representatives of the Members Association at the inaugural meeting of the National Olympics Committee/Commonwealth Games Association Sierra Leone (NOC/CGA-SLE), Koroma said their focus now is not only to participate but to compete and win medals.
“Our focus now is to go out there and compete, we want to see a situation where Sierra Leone goes out there and wins medals which will be a big plus and not just only for NOC-SLE or the individual Associations, but for the country,” the newly appointed Chef De Mission said adding that is why they have decided to meet with Presidents of Associations and request they submit the names of their technical heads
Koroma who also doubles as the Sierra Leone Archery Association president said his task requires the cooperation of all especially with the technical heads if they should have better representations in international games.
He said: “If we are to have a very good team in games, we must ensure we have a very good technical team who must ensure they have a very good athletes representation out there.”
Koroma further revealed that there will be four major Games coming up and the highest among them is the African Youth Games which is scheduled for Tunisia from 24th to 30th June 2023, the African Beach Games which is a qualifications tournament for some associations such as the 4 on 4 Beach Volleyball, Handball and Air Badminton and it is expected to start from the 5th to 12th August 2023.
For the African Beach Games, he said 13 sporting disciplines are invited; Beach Volleyball 4×4, Beach Handball, Beach Soccer, Beach Tennis, Air Badminton, Basketball 3 on 3, free water swimming, rowing, baseball 5×5 and Teqball.
“The 2023 Youth Commonwealth Games to be held in Trinidad and Tobago from the 4th to 11th August 2023 will have seven sporting disciplines to participate and Sierra Leone was awarded a quota of 7 athletes and 4 officials,” he said.
