(Feature)
By: Dadson A. Musa
Sport is a serious career path for people in the world especially youths. And in times like these when our youths do not seem to have enough opportunities and therefore show tendency to take to drugs; the Sierra Leone Athletics Association has in a bold step shown the example that other sporting disciplines should follow. After bringing peace and unity to the association, Martin Bangura has embarked on motivating our talented athletes.
In a show of commitment to the sport, the president of the Sierra Leone Athletics Association, Martin Bangura with support from the sports ministry has doled out scholarship and financial support to top athletes in the country.
It was a presentation ceremony graced by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and officials from the Ministry of Sports. Two athletes, Teresa S. Kargbo and Osman Challay who are both long distance runners benefited from an annual scholarship fund of Le. 2,000,000(old Leones), with an additional Le 5,000,000 each.
Their coaches also benefited from some support given to SLAA by the athletics federation. It is unprecedented and the president, Martin Bangura has vowed to “continue with this gesture until athletics is improved in Sierra Leone.” As the focus has been too much on football the association aims to bring relevance to athletics this time around.
In his remark, the president Martin Bangura expressed “gratitude” to the government of Sierra Leone for the support. He went further to state that the gesture “is motivation to improve the performance of athletes” and lure more youngsters to the sport.
Speaking to this medium, one of the beneficiary recipients, Teresa S. Kargbo expressed thanks and appreciation for the scholarship and financial help and said she is going to “improve on her performance and bring laurels to the country.” This motivation is going to be replicated for other sports according to the sports ministry official.
