NEWS

ITU Meets African Sport Leaders

By Loreen Barnett | 19 Dec, 2009

Marisol Casado, ITU President recently travelled to Mapulto, Mozambique to support the campaign of the African Triathlon Union (ATU) to solidify inclusion in the All-African Games. 

While in Maputo, Marisol met with Mustapha Larfaoui (Honorary IOC member and former President of FINA.)

Following the meeting she joined Liesbeth Stoltz, President of ATU and Dr. Lanre Glover, ATU Executive Board member and President of the Nigerian Triathlon Federation in meetings with Dr. Carlos Jose Castro de Sousa, Vice Minister of Youth and Sports of Mozambique (pictured right with Marisol).  They also met with Penalva Cezar, General Secretary of the Mozambique National Olympic Committee, and Director of the Maputo 2011 COJA (also pictured right with Dr. Lanre Glover and Liesbeth Stoltz.

Earlier in the week Liesbeth Stoltz and Dr. Glover attended the first joint meeting of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA). 

Others in attendance at that meeting were: The African Union; The Association of African Sport Confederations (AASC); the Association of National Olympic Committees for Africa (ANOCA); The 7 Development Zones of Africa (the 53 countries in Africa are divided in 7 development zones.).

Included amongst the Confederations of Sport in Africa was Liesbeth Stoltz representing triathlon.  Dr Lanre Glover attended representing Handball.

Dr. Glover attended later meetings of Comite Organizador Dos X Jogos Africanos or COJA MAPUTO 2011 represented by Penalva Cezar from Maputo.

An important outcome of the meetings was that the African Triathlon Union is now incorporated in all the continental sport structures and Triathlon will be included in the 2011 African Games.

Because the African Games also include multisports the program will include ITU Multisport disciplines, such as sprint, Duathlon, team, etc.

Mozambique will host a Triathlon Federation Developing event the new year as part of the Continental preparation for a major games.  It is giving direction and urgency to the ATU’s Development plan and can serve as a model to development of Triathlon on the Continent

The next step on the road to Maputo 2011 is drafting a broad development plan and meeting with role players to form development and support partnerships.  A venue inspection will be conducted shortly and finalizing the programme and criteria for the event will also be formalized in the new year.