Jollof Town Ward defeated New Town East Ward 1-0 to emerge the winner of maiden Banjul Beach on Sunday.
The first ever Beach Football Tournament in the capital city was organized by the ‘City Link Ostend-Banjul’ project dubbed ‘Future Proof Banjul’ with the Banjul City Council and the nine wards.
The Mayor of Banjul Lord Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe, Project Coordinator of Ostend Jonas Scherrens , councillors of the nine wards, and National Assembly Members attended the 1st to 3rd October event.
The three-day tournament featured Jollof Town; Half Die; Portuguese; New Town West; New Town East; Soldier Town; Campama; Box Bar; and Crab Island, plus the BCC team.
Jollof Town took the lead in the second half of the game as their number 3 hit the back of his opponent’s net; while New Town East tightened up their boots for equalizer, but it was impossible, as the referee blew the final whistle.
The winner, Jollof Town went home with D15, 000, a giant trophy with medals for the players; while the runners up New Town East got a consolation of D10, 000, a trophy with medals for players.
The semi-finalists each received D1,000, and the other participant teams also got some cash prizes.
Speaking at the occasion, Lord Mayor of Banjul, Rohey Malick Lowe expressed delight over the tournament saying, “it brings unity among the wards”.
She added that the tournament falls among one of the five components of the City Link Ostend-Banjul project.
She therefore commended the teams, their coaches, the Red Cross and the project team, for doing well.
The Banjul number one, Honorable Malick-Lowe used the opportunity to highlight the five key components of the City Link Ostend-Banjul project, which include good governance; greening the city of Banjul; accessible to health care; sustainable development centre at Crab Island and improved waste management.
She thanked the European Union, the sponsor of the City Link Ostend-Banjul project worth over 3 million euros.
At a press briefing, the communication officer for the project, Annette Camara expressed her excitement with the Beach soccer.
Speaking from an Environmental and climate change perspective Annette said the National Climate Change Policy should also involve local investment in removing carbon from the atmosphere and this is possible by greening Banjul that by extension the Gambia would help in the country’s mitigation measures.
“Since tree planting is very important in mitigating adverse climate action and most particularly is the sea level rise in controlling beach erosion.
“This is why it is fundamentally important for the maximum community engagement with the youth of Banjul, especially the footballers that use the beach as a training ground. Communication and engagement is pivotal in this project,” she said.
Jonas Scherrens of Ostend City Council expressed his satisfaction and encouraged the teams to keep up the good work.
He mentioned that the long-standing partnership between Ostend and Banjul would be further strengthened for the benefit of the two cities.
Mam Lai Jasseh the project coordinator gave an overview of the project and thanked the European Union for the support, the ward councilors, National Assembly members, and the ‘Nawettan’ teams that participated.