Africa-Press – Eswatini. Team Eswatini has significantly been trimmed to just 11 athletes and five officials ahead of next month’s African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Youth Games in Lilongwe, Malawi.
With no funds availed, the Eswatini Sports and Recreation Council and the Eswatini Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association have put together at least E750 000 to send the athletes from three sporting disciplines, athletics, swimming and taekwondo to the biannual games.
Malawi will, for the first time in history, host the 10th edition of the regional youth games from December 2 to 11. ESRC and EOCGA Chief Executive Officers Darius Dlomo and Maxwell Jele jointly announced team Eswatini at Mountain View Hotel yesterday.
The team will leave the country on November 27 by road to Malawi through Mozambique. Dlomo said the initial position was that Eswatini would not participate in the games but after consideration, a request was made to at least send a smaller group in the spirit of sporting unity. He added that for uniformity purposes, the mandate of leading teams to international games had been extended to EOCGA.
Jele highlighted that due to the limited budget, vigorous exercises were undertaken in identifying athletes who can represent the country and as a result, athletes who got medals in the last Region 5 Games in Maseru and in recent regional games were considered.
Taekwondo is expected to start its programme on November 30 before the opening ceremony, hence the team will leave three days earlier. During the opening ceremony, EOCGA’s honorary president, Zombodze Magagula is expected to be inducted into the AUSC Region 5 Hall of Fame.
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
