Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) in collaboration with the Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) are set to host the first-ever National Youth Games next week during the Independence Day holidays.
The games are a new addition to the sports calendar and will be staged annually in different districts. Because this year they are being held in Maseru, the games have been dubbed the Maseru National Youth Games and the name will change with the district hosting the event.
The National Youth Games are the first of their kind in the country and will encompass various sporting codes at different locations. The young competitors will compete in athletics, boxing, chess, cycling, rugby, table-tennis, taekwondo, tennis as well as volleyball.
LNOC spokesperson Fetang Selialia said other sporting codes such as football and netball were excluded because of the LSRC and LNOC’s limited budget. Selialia said the money they have been given by the Olympic Solidarity is very little and a contribution from government is needed for other sports to be included.
Selialia said in order to have more sporting codes, the budget must be over M2 million but they are working with a budget of less than M500 000. “Because this is the first initiative, we believe that going forward, budget will allow us to involve all sporting activities,” Selialia said.
“There is no money awards but the winning teams will be awarded medals.
on the other hand, we want our country to recognise the potential of the participants so that they can be sponsored, get promoted, (and) stand a chance to be in performance programmes and be supported to train internationally,” he said.
Selialia said the initiative to host the youth games came after the LSRC and LNOC realised that the performance of Lesotho’s youth athletes in international competitions has been poor in recent years.
He said the hope is that by hosting the championships, Lesotho’s young athletes will improve and so will their performances. The LSRC and LNOC looked at models used by successful athletic countries such as Kenya and Jamaica and decided to try them.
“We looked at other countries’ systems and thought to ourselves that we need to implement our system in youths and see if it can work for us,” he said.
The organisers have arranged accommodation for athletes for three nights in order to meet them halfway with travelling, especially to the competition venues.
Police Training Centre (PTC) will be used to host rugby, table tennis and volleyball. Makoanyane Barracks will host boxing and taekwondo. The National Tennis Court will be used for tennis.
The Goodnight Guest House will host chess competitions while athletics will be at Setsoto Stadium. Meanwhile, cyclists will ride from Mazenod through to Makoanyane square and then Sethaleng.
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