Africa-Press – Cape verde. The new president of the Cape Verdean Tennis Federation (FCT), Adilson Matias, announced this Monday in Mindelo his intention to reactivate national championships and tournaments to inject new dynamism into the sport, after six years of inactivity.
In a press interview regarding his election, Adilson Matias began by thanking the clubs and athletes who “didn’t let tennis die” during the period the federation was inactive, stating that the immediate priority is organizing competitions to signal the institution’s return.
“(…) What we propose is to start with national championships and, therefore, we are starting with a commemorative tournament to give a little more encouragement and dynamism to the sport and for people to see that the federation is back,” he said.
According to Adilson Matias, what led him to take on this challenge was the fact that he considers himself passionate about sports, especially tennis, and the desire to implement regional and national projects in this sport.
Therefore, he emphasized that the federation’s next step is to organize a national tournament with all active athletes, providing more games, more training time, and greater competitiveness.
“We need more associations, which is a regional-level project. And, at the national level, the idea is to hold two to three national stages to really revitalize tennis,” said Adilson Matias, stressing that his goal is to implement projects that guarantee competitiveness and increase the training time of active athletes.
To this end, he explained, the idea is to encourage the creation of regional associations, counting on partnerships and local groups that want to revitalize tennis, but also with the municipalities, in addition to the Institute of Sport and Youth (IDJ).
According to Adilson Matias, the perspective is to start training projects inspired by the monitor training project implemented in Ribeira Grande de Santo Antão, which he considers to be a successful example.
“Starting with a monitor training project, and with each region having its own monitors, we will begin to implement new associations and give tennis lessons so that children can progress. It is from there that the associations will begin to form, counting on the athletes,” predicted the same source, who added that, until reaching that stage, each region will have a management committee.
But, for now, the new president of the Cape Verdean Tennis Federation said that the focus will be on the administrative, institutional, and financial reactivation of the federation.
“We have to see how we are financially, what we have to do and what we need, so that we can then start planning, defining the path and how to follow it,” he said, emphasizing that they will organize a national championship regardless of the federation’s current conditions.
“We will work to have a national championship within four or five months. If we don’t have the money now, we will find ways to get it within that timeframe to organize the championship,” he concluded.
The Cape Verdean Tennis Federation had been inactive since 2019, following the departure of its last president, José Almada Dias.
During this hiatus, only the islands of Sal and Santo Antão maintained a regular competitive dynamic, in contrast to the lethargy observed in the other sporting regions.
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