By Buba Gagigo
Gambian athlete, Fatou Sowe who won a Bronze medal at the just concluded African Championships held in Saint Pierre, Mauritius from 8th to 12th June 2022 has appealed to The Gambia government to equally treat all types of sports in the country .
The athlete believes that her discipline is not given due attention as football gets, saying “athletics is bringing more medals and results than football.”
“It’s big time neglected in the country because all focus is on football. And then I think athletics is bringing more medals and results than football. So I think it should have been equal (treatment) to all sports not just athletics or football but volleyball, basketball and all other sports. They should treat every sports equal because without giving other sports opportunities or chances to prove themselves, they cannot achieve what they want to achieve. I think they need to focus more on other sports not just football. Athletics as you can see, we are bringing more results than any other sports in the country,” she said when asked whether she thinks athletics is neglected in the Gambia.
Further asked about the opportunities other sports have that is not given to athletics, she said: “They treatment us different because the Ministry (Youths and sports), I will say thank you to them. This was successful because they sponsored the whole trip. I think they should sponsored more of athletics trips and they should give us chances to go on training camps. And to at least also help the federation organised league competitions.
“Like major competitions, because in the Gambia we don’t have competitions. It’s only athletes based outside and some of them that have chances to go to Senegal and compete. If not they don’t have any competition. We have only May Day sports and or the national championship after that there are nothing like club or any championships that is happening in the country. So I think they need to help the federation to host more competitions home,” she said.
Sowe thanked the Ministry of Youth and Sports for sponsoring their trip to the African Championship.
Fatou Sowe participated in the 22nd African Championships in Athletics which was held in Saint Pierre, Mauritius from 8 to 12 June 2022, at the Cote d’Or National Sports Complex. The event was originally scheduled to be held in 2020 in Oran, Algeria, but had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comments are closed.