Africa-Press – Angola. MPLA candidate João Lourenço showed this Sunday that he is in good physical shape, cycling 23 kilometers in just 49 minutes, on a route between the Port of Luanda and Nova Marginal, where he made other laps, before entering the the Memorial Dr. António Agostinho Neto to cross the finish line.
The exercise, which was attended by a considerable number of supporters, many of whom were cyclists, was marked by the withdrawal of many participants, most of them young people, still in the middle of the first round. They reached the goal, with President João Lourenço, who is, at the moment, 68 years old, practically the federated athletes, being a considerable number of Petro de Luanda, and the staff of his personal security.
In brief statements to the press, João Lourenço, who surprised those present by not breathing heavily, as was to be expected, given the physical activity, said that the exercise served to show youth the importance of practicing sport for health.”This was just a sign of an example to our youth, whom we love”, said the MPLA candidate to the General Elections on the 24th of this month, recalling that this country belongs to young people.
“If young people are not healthy, we will not have a healthy country either”, he underlined. Leader João Lourenço stressed that, in order to take on this challenge, young people must first have a healthy soul in a healthy body. “Practice sport. It can be cycling, football, handball or basketball”, advised the MPLA president.
The important thing is that it be physical activity, so that we have a heart that beats hard, in order to withstand the vicissitudes of life”, he appealed. Some members of the outgoing Executive participated in the exercise, especially the Secretary of State for Fisheries and MPLA candidate. to the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança Costa, the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, Manuel Homem, the Secretary of State for Sports, Carlos Almeida, and the governor of Luanda, Ana Paula de Carvalho. at the level of the MPLA structure, the vice-president, Luísa Damião, and the 1st national secretary of the JMPLA, Crispiniano dos Santos.
Incentive To Practice Sport
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Ana Paula do Sacramento Neto, said that this initiative by President João Lourenço will encourage young people to value the practice of sport more. “The president showed that it is possible to take advantage of the existing infrastructures for the practice of sports, such as the New Marginal, the pedestrian areas on land and the spaces in the various centers spread across the country”, she stressed.
A Great Promoter Of Health
For the Minister of Health, Sílvia Lutucuta, the president of the MPLA showed, with this gesture, to be “a great” promoter of health. She mentioned that the initiative will stimulate the taste for the practice of sport in the country, which has a series of diseases, such as arterial hypertension and diabetes, whose improvement depends on the lifestyle.
“We know that more than half of our adult population is hypertensive”, stressed Sílvia Lutucuta, for whom the practice of physical exercises is essential. “We have to start promoting, more and more, physical activities, to improve our mental, psychological and physical state, in order to be better prepared for life”, she stressed.
The Minister of Health stressed that a simple walk, swimming, dancing and other sports are always good for health, especially for the immune system. The withdrawal of many participants in the first round of pedaling, she said, is due to the lack of physical exercises and because these people do not have their bodies conditioned to practice sports, in this dimension. “It was 23 kilometers. This is not for everyone, which is why we have to praise and be satisfied that our President of the Republic is in good shape”, she said. Sílvia Lutucuta believes, however, that the dropouts took, even so, a great motivation to continue to practice more sport. “Because young people can’t get in the way,” she said.
Course Finalists
Mércia Sara, 11 years old, is part of a group of children and teenagers who managed to accompany the President of the Republic to the finish line. The athlete, whose first steps began at the age of 10, revealed that the secret, to reach the end of the course, is permanent training. “I don’t stop training,” she said. Zuleide Cardoso, 39, also completed the course. Like Mércia Sara, she said that the secret lies in the constant practice of the sport. “Without that, it would not be possible to follow the footsteps of the President of the Republic, who left several young people behind”, she clarified.
It should be remembered that in the first exercise of its kind, carried out in January 2020, before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the closed circuit of the Lobito sandbank, in Benguela, the President of the Republic cycled 34 kilometers, of the 25 initially planned, in a 1h:8m, at an average speed of 34 km/h.
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