Africa-Press – Angola. The president of the Angolan Judo Federation, Hermenegildo dos Santos, reiterated Monday, in the city of Huambo, his desire to make the country African champion, in all categories.
Speaking to the press, he said that this desire represents one of the goals to be achieved throughout his tenure at the federation.
For this purpose, he assured that the necessary conditions are being created, especially from the point of view of raising the technical and competitive level of judokas, for the realization of this desideratum.
He stressed that, in a first phase, the aim is to make, from this year onwards, Angola African champion in the categories of cadets and juniors, where it already holds the title of runner-up.
The intention is to try to make this wish come true, in all categories until the end of his mandate.
Regarding the first two years of his mandate, he referred that the results obtained were satisfactory, with regard to the implementation of his campaign programme, which foresaw, among other actions, the improvement of Angola’s position in the world ranking.
In this domain, he continued, 37 positions have already been improved against the 20 initially estimated.
“For these and other accomplishments, we consider that we are on the right path, because the competitive level of the athletes and the results that have been obtained, show that the modality has evolved a lot and there is room to evolve even more”, he stressed.
Federation needs more sponsors
The federative president pointed out the scarcity of resources, due to lack of financers and/or sponsors of the modality, as one of the main constraints for the development of this combat sport in the country.
He explained that unlike other sports, with emphasis on football, basketball and handball, judo has still received little funding beyond the State, especially from the business class, despite several requests.
Without estimating a possible budget, he made it known that the Federation needs values that can allow for greater development, as well as support the costs of participating in more than 30 internal competitions and 15 international ones.
He explained that the association has received budget allocations from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, but that they are intended for African and world competitions.
During the interview, he indicated that for the current year, the federation expects to receive, from the General State Budget (OGE) 30 million kwanzas, a tiny figure for the expenses of the modality.
As an example, he highlighted the holding, in April, in the country’s capital (Luanda), of the Continental OPEN, valued at more than 170 million kwanzas.
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