Team Kenya, Twitter

African Athletics Championship a complete disaster

The African Athletics Championship held in Nigeria, has not turned into showing Africa’s sporting prowess to the world, but into an embarrassing fiasco.

Published: August 7, 2018, 10:36 am

    Read more

    It has turned out to be an organisational disaster by all accounts, with the lack results showing on the official AAC website, the least of their problems.

    Hours before the event was supposed to commence, some 400 athletes were still stuck in Lagos at the Airport, unable to reach Asaba. Organisers had apparently failed to make provision for interconnecting flights to Asaka where the games were being held. Athletes had to sleep on the floor all night.

    The poor logistics has seen scores of athletes, officials and journalists cry foul as they got stranded at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Nigeria’s capital.

    With no scheduled flights to Asaba Airport, the organisers had to charter aircraft to ferry delegations from Lagos to Asaba, approximately 500 kilometres from Lagos. It appears that nobody had been bothered with the schedules of international competitors.

    With the backlog of three days, transfers to Asaba were being handled on a first-come-first-serve basis with the chartered flights unable to meet the demand.

    Athletes and officials suffered with luggage either lost or misplaced in the ensuing chaos. The opening day’s programme had to be postponed eventually.

    According to the schedule, competition was supposed to start on Wednesday at 9am with the decathlon’s 100 metres race. “It is total chaos here,” Kenyan sports journalist Muigai Kiguru who was travelling in the Kenyan team, was quoted in the press.

    “I hear there could be a flight for about 70. It seems like some (athletes) will travel on Wednesday,” he added.

    On Tuesday morning, the Kenyan team could still not get a flight to Asaba with some members of the delegation sharing beds at the airport hotels upon arrival on Monday.

    A pole vaulter who wanted to remain anonymous, complained about the quality of the track. “The track itself was not flat. Athletes were running on a roller coaster!” the athlete said.

    Moroccan high jumper Rhizlane Siba said preparations for the event have been massively affected. “We made it to Lagos two nights ago,” she told AfricaNews ahead of the games. “We slept the first night at the airport and the second night at the hotel. They claimed that we had a flight coming today, but we have spent the whole day at the airport.”

    Siba added: “We are stranded in Lagos. We haven’t trained for three days, and we haven’t eaten properly in two days.”

    When the games finally got underway, things did not improve much either. The wrong anthems were played and flags were flown upside down. Then the water tower collapsed and the stadium resembled a dump for toxic waste with many of the installations still unfinished.

    The disrupted schedule for the competition, running from August 1-5, forced neighbouring Tanzania not to bother with sending their team and they withdrew, AFP reported. The Tanzanians said organisers had sent out documents too late.

    But Solomon Ogba, chairman of the local organising committee, at a press conference on Thursday blamed competing nations because they had sent travel plans too late, he said.

    Unaffected by the bad press, Nigerian officials said they were seriously pursuing hosting rights for the 2025 world athletics championships. The country has one of the highest birthrates in Africa.

    Around 16 percent of Africa’s population live in Nigeria, the most populous nation on the continent. In 2014, the inhabitant count stood at 178 500 000 and 5,5 million people are added every year. There are virtually no Europeans living in the country.

    The championships were held to select the African team for the IAAF Intercontinental Cup in the Czech Republic in September this year, according to AFP.

    All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.

    Consider donating to support our work

    Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.

    Keep ​your language polite​. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in​,​ for example​, ​Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.

    If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violation​s​ of​ any​ law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.

    If your comments are subject to preview ​by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.

    We reserve the right to del​ete​ comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

    One comment

    1. We expect too much. I’m sure they do the best they can. It IS Africa.

      Comment by lilyred on October 21, 2018 at 6:16 pm

    By submitting a comment you grant Free West Media a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.

    Africa

    South Africa’s infrastructure 30 years after the end of Apartheid

    LondonHating South Africa was part of growing up in North London in the 1980s. Pelle Taylor and Patrick Remington from Two Raven Films, recently interviewed South Africans about the decline of the country after Apartheid ended.

    Nigerian President: More weapons for Ukraine end up in Africa

    LagosSome time ago, FWM reported on arms deliveries to Ukraine, which shortly afterwards were resold on the Internet. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has warned that "weapons used in the war in Ukraine are gradually leaking into the region" and called for strengthened border security.

    Namibia sees opportunity to attract German energy refugees

    Windhoek"The former German colony, Namibia wants to help Germany in its energy crisis". This is how an article in the online edition of a German newspaper recently began about Namibia's new "Digital Nomad" visa. The six-month visa is ideal for long-term holidaymakers. And for professionals who have their office on their laptop and can work from anywhere.

    Uneven global population growth reaches 8 billion

    According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), we celebrated the 8 billionth day* on November 15. The planet's population is still increasing dramatically, albeit at a decreasing pace.

    French fuel debacle spills over to Senegal

    DakarThe recent events at the French embassy in Burkina Faso were yet another demonstration against France on the African continent after France was ousted from Mali. All it took was a rumour to attract the sympathy of the population and demonstrators to head to the French Embassy.

    New South African drone to compete with Turkey’s Bayraktar

    PretoriaThe South African defense company Milkor unveiled its Milkor 380 reconnaissance and attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It is expected to become a competitor to Turkey's Bayraktar and Anka drones.

    Bucking the trend: Uganda bans work by LGBT group

    KampalaThe Ugandan government has banned the activities of a local non-governmental organization that campaigns for the rights of sexual minorities. According to a senior official, the organization worked illegally in the African country.

    South Africa: 82 suspects arrested after a mass rape

    KrugersdorpDozens of black men ambushed a film crew at an abandoned mine near Johannesburg on Friday. They raped eight models between the ages of 19 and 35. As they fled, the police shot dead two suspects and 82 other people were arrested.

    BRICS expansion on the cards

    More and more emerging countries are considering joining the BRICS group, which is seen as the major emerging countries' counterweight to the US-led West and the G7. Especially in times like these, this is also a clear signal to Washington.

    Poland opens border after South Africa complains about their treatment of blacks

    PretoriaThere is a very diverse crowd on the German-Polish border currently trying to take advantage of the war situation. Do they really all come from Ukraine?

    Go to archive