Logistics dog African Champs
Visas, transport at the centre of chaos
The build-up to the opening of the African Senior Athletics Championships that starts today in Nigeria has been overshadowed by a litany of woes with visa issues and apparent lack of regular flights at the heart of the hassles.
Team SA only started training yesterday after they were left stranded at the OR Tambo International Airport due to visa glitches.
“We just hope the team has not been affected by what has happened,” the team’s press attache Sifiso Cele told Sowetan yesterday as he was boarding a flight to the competition in Asaba.
The continental track-and-field meeting takes off at the Delta State from today to Sunday.
Team SA, which has world champions Caster Semenya and Luvo Manyonga, were among those who were caught up in the confusion and things got to a head that other nations apparently threatened to withdraw from the competition.
Semenya is gunning for four titles in Nigeria as she has entered the 400m, 800m, 1 500m and 4x400m relay.
Apart from South Africa, others who experienced struggles were powerhouses Kenya, Ivory Coast, who boast the fastest woman in the world so far this year, sprinter MarieJosee Ta Lou.
According to reports in Kenya, their team was forced to stay overnight in Lagos after specially arranged connecting flights to Asaba could not handle the high volumes of arriving teams.
The African champs serves as trials for the IAAF Continental Cup next month.