The Confederation of African Athletics held its 29th ordinary (virtual) Congress via ZOOM on Tuesday 28th September 2021, under the chairmanship of the CAA president Mr Hamad Kalkaba MALBOUM, Mr Sébastian COE, president of WA, WA Directors and Congress delegates.
Agenda
- Call of delegates
- Approval of the agenda
- Approval of the minutes of the 23rd Congress in Abidjan 2019
- Communication by the CAA President
- Communication by the WA President
- 2020 -2021 activity report by the CAA CEO
- Contribution of Africa in the WA Congress: which important issues to be agreed ?
- Information on the World U20 championships - Nairobi 2021
- Information on the preparation of the 22nd Africa senior championships, MAURITIUS 2022
- CAA 2022 Calendar
- Marketing report as part of CAA/VANQUISH contract
- Date and place of next Congress
Highlights of the CAA President’s communication:
- About Performances of African Athletes :
Kindly allow me to take the opportunity offered by this meeting to express my satisfaction with the results achieved by our athletes throughout this period of pandemic, specifically during the recent Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
I would like to point out, with great pleasure, that of the 37 medals won by Africa during this global event, 23 were won by our sport. Athletics therefore remains the biggest medal provider for our continent, with a contribution, this time, of 59%.
Moreover, in Athletics, Kenya succeeded to be classified in the third position after the United States of America and China, at the end of these Games, thus ahead of many countries, recognized for their exceptional performances, in the past, in this discipline, athletics. This is a great source of pride for our continent.
I would also like to congratulate, alongside Kenya with its ten (10) medals, all the other African Federations which are on the podium in athletics, more precisely Uganda with four (04) medals, Ethiopia, four (04) medals, Morocco, Botswana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, with one (01) medal each.
Africa therefore remains a strong link in sport in general and athletics in particular, because of its numerous and successful youth, who is quite simply asking to benefit from more professional supervision and high-level competitions on the continent.
- About the World Athletics Development Plan
At its recent Council held in Tokyo, Japan on the sidelines of the Olympic Games, WORLD ATHLETICS decided to implement its Global Plan for the Development of Athletics, entitled “The Global Plan - For and By All”.
This is a plan for all events in our sport, from the races on our streets to the finals of the Olympic Games. This plan was designed with input from the entire global athletics family, namely:
- 214 member national federations,
- 06 Continental associations,
- 25,000 people from over 175 countries.
Each of these stakeholders played a crucial and determining role in the development of this document, the content of which I invite you to make your own. Because it clearly outlines objectives to reach and actions to carry out.
Indeed, these are 04 strategic objectives namely, More participation, More people, More fans and More partnerships. These 04 strategic objectives are, in turn, broken down into 19 operational objectives, broken down into 67 concrete actions to be carried out.
I would like to emphasize that this Global Plan is flexible, considering that a single rigid model cannot be suitable for all. Each member federation has its realities and each continental association its constraints.
At the level of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), we must therefore be able to analyze this Plan, in order to link our own, which already exists, to this one and thus allow our athletes to benefit from the advantages it could offer them. This meeting and future consultations should allow us to examine its feasibility for Africa.
- About realities of the African Continent:
The reasons for the necessary professionalization of the working sections of the CAA:
- Given the current complexity of the delivery of sports practice, due in particular to the changes that have occurred on a global scale provoked by the COVID 19 pandemic, it is not easy to continue to manage the sports movement, more particularly athletics, with the same benchmarks and methods of the past.
- It is therefore a question of introducing more professionalization, more digitization, more diversification, flexibility and adaptation in the activities of the CAA.
- More than ever, we need specialization in all of our activities and in our procedures, without abandoning the minimum mastery and the maximum supervision to be carried out by the classic CAA governing bodies, in particular those elected.
- This new vision, which I advocate, aims at achieving more efficiency and effectiveness in management, more transparency, and the mobilization of additional financial resources. All this, in the sole interest of developing the sport performance of our athletes.
The major objective of this Vision: To turn African athletics into an Industry:
- To achieve this objective, we must strive to provide our member federations with a minimum of knowledge relating to the various mechanisms necessary in promoting the production of sports performance
- The goal is to consider the athletics issue as a sporting fact, to consolidate it as a cultural component, to assert it more as a means of sustainable development, a tool for constant improvement of the image of countries and the continent, in an industrial managerial concept. Sport is hereby seen as an industry capable of generating wealth for practitioners and institutions.
- For us therefore, it is a matter of effectively implementing the CAA Ten-Year Plan, taking inspiration from that of WORLD ATHLETICS and taking into account African realities
- In terms of prospects, in 2022 we have the African athletics championships which will be held in Mauritius as a prelude to the World Championships to be hosted by Eugene in the United States of America.
- 2022 is therefore an important year for international competitions
Communication by the World Athletics President
- Congratulate the CAA president for giving me the opportunity to take part in this Congress
- I am happy and it is exciteful to see the future of African Athletics in a new era.
- Congratulate Jackson Tuwei and his team for staging the world championships in Nairobi which was not easy because with the pandemic there are protocoles to be put in place
- I recognize the labour you made for the success of these championships
- Thank all of you who accepted to send your teams to the Tokyo Olympic Games and the U20 Nairobi world. This is a very hard work because of the proximity of the two events.
- About building on a momentum: as a sport, we are in an incredibly strong position
- 2021 has been a very good year for athletics, we solidified our position without questionning as the number one Olympic sport
- We came out of Tokyo stronger than we have never been with new nations and new athletes stepping onto the global stage
- After all this and 18 months of disrupt and frustrationI know the times are still difficult for many of our athletes as the Covid 19 global pandemic continues to restrict our movements and complicate our lives.
- We have the most God given and talented athletes in the world
- Our position is the N°1Olympic sport firmely established
- We must work harder for our sport and be more brave when we organize competitions. It is where our athletes shine and where our stakeholders and our fans are invested in our sport.
- We organize on day meetings, road races but we need area events, regional events and national events to resume fully in 2022.
- Looking back on the last 18 months, i am really proud and grateful to the way we came together as a sport.
- Three words define the year 2020: Resilience, Bravory and Flexibility
- Thank you President Hamad for the opportunity. I am delighted be in the African athletics family and to be able to share with you this morning.
Activity report 2020 -2021 of the CAA CEO
The activity report of the CEO focused on the following items:
- Reminder of the 2021 prospects with the Africa cross-countrychampionships and the Africa senior championships among others which were postponed then cancelled.
- In terms of competitions, the General Director reported on the participation of Africa in the world competitions and made the status of records established in 2021.
- In terms of Development, he underlined that the AADCs (African Athletics Development Centers) focused on online training because of the sanitary situation throughout the world
- Training centers : trainings were also maintained in centers like Lomé, Dakar, Port Harcourt and Lusaka with good tests of performance.
- Opening in view of new AADC, in Côte d’Ivoire and in Cap-Vert
- Putting in place of scholarships for training academies
- In terms of finances,in some sections of the budgetsuch as international transport, expenditures were nearly void. CAA envisages to use these resources to be able to support the next activities face to face activities. Au auditor’s report of the financial year 2020 was duly produced and sent to WA.
- 2022 Prospects:
- The 2022 Africa senior championships
The CAA has received the agreement of the Maurician government authorizing the Mauritius Athletics Association to host the Africa senior championships 2022 in Mauritius
Contribution of Africa in the WACongress
On this issue, no contribution was made. However, the CAA president raised that Africa was under-represented i the WA council.
Informations on the world U20 Championships – Nairobi 2021
The president of Athletics Kenya, General Jackson TUWEI, reported on the world U20 championships which took place in Nairobi(Kenya), at MOI International sport centre, kasarani stadium from 18 to 22 August 2021. It was the 1st time in history that this event took place in Africa.
Among 117 participating countries, we noted 35 African countries including 9medallist:
Kenya : 16 medals : 8 gold, 1 silver, 7 bronze/ 1st place
Nigeria : 07 medals : 4 gold; O silver and 3 Bronze/ 3rd
Ethiopia : 12 medals : 3 gold, 7 silver ; 2 bronze/4th
Rep. South Africa: 09 medals : 3 gold, 2 silverand 4 bronze/6th
Botswana : 04 medals : 3 gold, 1 silver/7th
Namibia : 04 medals : 1 gold and 3 silver/11th
Algeria : 1 silver medal /27th
Eritrea: 1 Bronze
Uganda : 1 Bronze
22th Africa senior championships, MAURITIUS 2022
The Mauritius Athletics Association President released pieces of information regarding the preparation of the senior championships in Mauritius in 6 -12 June 2022.
Calendar 2022
The CAA Chief Executive Officer gave a few information regarding the2022calendar:
- Circular letters were sent to member federations and regions to communicate their calendar
- Only two dates were confirmed forthe Africa senior championships and the combined events challenge of Mauritius
- Regions have accepted to host theU18/U20 championships combined
- For meetings, confirmation from federations are yet to be received
- The calendar will be established after confirmation of all these dates
CAA President: The funds for 2021 which were not used will be used to support regions in the organization of U18/U20 championships.
Report on the Marketing as part of CAA/VANQUISH contract
As the President of Vanquish was absent, he was represented by Frank KRA who informed the Congress that Mr Andrés will forward his presentation to communicate on his strategy and explain the reasons why VANQUISH had not been able to show its experience and its capacity to adapt to the situation of each continent.
CAA President: we perfectly understand because the produc which Vanquish was supposed to commercialize was not available.
Date and place of next Congress
On this issue, President Kalkaba proposed the Congress to transfer its power to the council to decide on the date and place of the next Congress. The proposal was accepted. As all items on the agenda were tackled through, the CAA President thanked the WA President and his Directors as well as all Congress delegates for the success of the meeting and then closed the meeting after two hours of exchange.
Done in Dakar le 26 Octobre 2021.