By Barrie Alpha
The National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone (NOC-SLE) on Tuesday July 28th 2020 joined the Commonwealth Games Federation family to launch the Birmingham 2022-‘TWO YEARS TO GO’ at the OlympAfrica center in Goderich, west of Freetown.
In his welcomed address, the vice president of NOC-SLE, Abdul Karim Sesay who doubles as the Chairman for the programme said Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) of Sierra Leone decided to commence the conference in order to inform the membership and the press about what is happening in the international arena.
He went further to disclose that they’ve been taking part in zoom conferences which according to him they have been making meaningful contribution through their dynamic president.
In his brief speech, NOC-SLE’s President Dr Patrick Coker recognized the presence of the National Sport Authority, stating that it is the first function they were having as CGA and that there are scheduled activities that will take place until the games happen.
“The National Sports Authority as we may have learnt is here to give us the direction of sports, we are all supposed to be registering our associations,” he said.
He added that: “Yes we have two years to go for the Commonwealth Games which is very important international sporting meet; this is where we are able to send a relative large contingent for now. So far we’ve been participating in all the Commonwealth Games and I hope we will do so again in 2022”.
“We want everyone to know what this whole thing is about, which is the launching of the ‘TWO YEARS TO GO’ Birmingham 2022,” Dr. Coker stated.
Making his statement, the Secretary General of NOC-SLE, Joseph Nyande said they’ve initially engaged the media concerning information about how Covid-19 has affected the overall sporting activities in the world.
“The Commonwealth Games has not been spared in this ramification, athletes training and official functioning of the sporting organs have been drastically affected,” he said.
“Nonetheless, the leadership and executive have been working relentlessly to make sure that Birmingham 2022 happens unhindered. Efforts have been made to work with other international sporting organizations to reschedule their programmes, because there is a relationship amongst international activities of all these organs. The CGF has had consultations and has made decisions of the dates the Birmingham Games shall take place”.
“The aim of this conference is to join the Commonwealth Games Federation Family to launch the Birmingham 2022-“TWO YEAR TO GO” programme which is being launch today, Tuesday 28th July, 2020 in Birmingham. This launching is being organized under the leadership of the President of the CGF, Dame Louis Martin, Her executive and the Birmingham 2020 Commonwealth Games Local Organizing Committee “.
“We received an official letter from the CGF about their intention today. This is the reason we are joining them by engaging the media to let the people know about this epoch making activity that is happening today in Birmingham. We think it is very necessary for CGA Sierra Leone to join the CGF to celebrate this launch.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you the message we received to make this happen in a collaborative manner; In a week’s time it will be two years to go until the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and we have some exciting plans to share with you about how we are going to mark this important milestone on the countdown to the games.”
“We will of course be using our social media channels throughout the day, to highlight that there are only 730 days left until the Games begin, but we are also going to use this opportunity to publicly announce the official venue for two of our sports – 3×3 basketball (which of course includes wheelchair basketball and beach volleyball, one of the sports that we added to the programme last year,” Nyande stated.
The closing statement was made by the Chef De Mission, Unisa Deen Kargbo and Madam Pamela William gave the vote of thanks.