Rwanda has pulled out of hosting the 2013 African Junior Athletics Championship.
This has put the Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) in confusion.
As a sole bidder, Rwanda had been given the nod to host 2013 African Junior Athletics Championship in June 2013.
At the bidding ceremony, the country was represented by National Athletics Federation’s Jean Damascène Nkezabo and the Director of Sports in the Ministry of Sports, Emmanuel Bugingo.
After several meetings and visits by Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) officials, Rwanda was informed that they would have to inject over US$2 million (Rwf1.3bn) to facilitate the championship, the New Times of Rwanda has reported.
However, Nkezabo has written to CAA saying that Rwanda has withdrawn their bid citing financial constraints.
But again Nkezabo denied writing the letter.
CAA Vice President, David Okeyo confirmed receipt of the letter yesterday.
“We have received communication from Rwanda that Kigali will not be ready to host the 2013 Africa Junior Championships.”
Okeyo added, “This is a blow to our plans because Rwanda had just been awarded the bid to host event.”
“Rwanda failed to procure necessary equipment in time and has always been lagging behind the time ever since they were awarded, the event.
“There is no standard tartan track in Rwanda to stage the championship. They also needed equipment for the event and technical support. All these need money and the organising committee has had difficulties getting the money to do all this,” said Okeyo.
In an interview, Nkezabo said, “I don’t know about the letter but it might have been written by my secretary general. The Ministry of Sports and Culture might be in good position to comment.”
However, Nkezabo acknowledged that the event would cost Rwanda a lot of money and the Ministry of Sports and Culture was not ready to commit itself despite assuring the continental body mid this year that they would avail everything to host the first ever continental athletics championship.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports Edward Kalisa said yesterday that on the side of the government, they could not meet the budget within the remaining time.
“CAA officials came to Kigali and we discussed the terms of reference to host the championship. After those discussions, an assessment was carried to see whether we could meet the costs,” he explained.
According to Kalisa, infrastructure costs alone were supposed to cost a tune of $2 million (Rwf. 1.3 billion) while organisation costs were tuned up to Rwf1 billion.
NewVision, Uganda
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