-By Saidu Abubakar
The continuing delay to the African Athletics Championships (AAC) will hit the continent’s Olympic hopefuls hard, according to Botswana’s Isaac Makwala.
The continental showpiece had been due to take place in Algiers, Algeria’s capital, this month, before Lagos stepped in as hosts.
But the Nigerian authorities made a U-turn over hosting the event, after all.
Nigeria withdrew its offer to stage the Championships slated to hold from June 23 to 27, less than two weeks after agreeing to host the 22nd edition, after original host, Algeria, pulled out for COVID-19 concerns.
Valuechain reports that Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare, last month agreed that Lagos would host the event.
However, authorities intervened, saying that the Championships could not be hosted as planned due to the global pandemic.
As it stands, the Championships will not be taking place before the June 29 deadline for achieving qualifying standards to compete at Tokyo 2020.
“A lot of Africans will struggle (to set Olympic qualifying marks)”, Makwala said after winning his 200 metres event in the Dutch town of Hengelo recently.
The Commonwealth 400 metres champion has already personally recorded qualifying times in both 200 and 400 metres, but knows that others will be badly hampered by the news.
“A lot of Africans were looking forward to it to qualify there. It’s not easy for all Africans to come to Europe to compete. You need finance, you need a lot of things. So I think this disrupts it a lot,” Makwala said.
Ronald Musagala finished down the field in the men’s 1500m at Hengelo – a race won by Britain’s Jake Wightman, just ahead of Kenya’s Abel Kipsang.
Musagala shares Makwala’s concern over the continental showpiece, but he accepts there is little to be done about it.
“Yes for sure (it’s a problem). Africa Athletics Championships was going to help us so much to improve on our performance,” he said.
“You see the problem we are facing, in the world, not only Africa. There’s nothing to do (about it), COVID is real and it kills, so we have to bear with the situation,” Makwala revealed.