NAIROBI, April 23 - African cities will host
lucrative athletics meetings on a par with the European Golden
League next year, the president of the African Athletics
Confederation (AAC) said on Saturday.
Cameroon's Kalkaba Malboum told a news conference that the
meetings would take place in Dakar, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Abuja
and Rabat.
"The AAC Permit Meeting in Nairobi on May 7 is the first
step to staging a big meeting here in Kenya," Malboum said.
"From next year, it will be upgraded to the level of the
European Golden League meetings."
He gave no dates of the other meetings which he said would
help stem the flow of Africa's top athletes overseas.
"Africa has the best athletes and it makes little sense that
they don't run in the continent," he said. "This is why we have
organised five major meetings to attract Olympic and world
champions.
"We have signed a contract with a French television channel
and a major multinational to promote athletics in Africa because
we realise we must organise the sport professionally to attract
big stars and offer big money," added Malboum.
He said top African athletes have been forced to compete
abroad because they are not rewarded financially at home.
"If an athlete wins an Olympic gold, it is not just enough
to feel proud of him or her. Governments should go a step
further and reward them materially to make them feel appreciated
and loved," he said.
"This is one of the ways to stem the exodus of athletes to
other countries.
"Africa has the resources to organise big competitions.
Africa has champions to make such competitions exciting but
because the sport is not run professionally here to attract big
sponsors and big prizes, our runners prefer competing in the
west."
Kenya has suffered more than most from athletes' defections,
with Athens Olympics 1,500m silver medallist Bernard Lagat the
latest to go. He became a U.S. citizen this month.
Up to 10 former Kenyans represented different nations at the
2003 World Championships in Paris, where Seif Saaeed Shaheen won
the 3,000m steeplechase gold as a Qatari to stop Kenya's 12-year
reign over the distance.
Twelve months earlier he won the race as Stephen Cherono of
Kenya in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.