Senegal to host African Athletics Zone II, U-18 and U-20 Championships

Dakar, Senegal has been selected to host the 2025 Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), Zone II, Under-18 and Under-20 Championships.

This was made public on Monday night, by the President of the Confederation of African Athletics , Zone II, Chief Tonobok Okowa.

Okowa, who is also the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria said, “They got the nod ahead of Nigeria, Guinea and Burkina Faso because CAA Zone II, wants to expand its reach, unite the region through sport and give every West African country a sense of belonging.

“We’ve hosted CAA Zone II competitions in Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana which are in the West side of the sub region, it’s time to give the East side their fair opportunity to create history and add value to a sport we all love and cherish with passion,” Okowa said.

He added that the excellent sporting facilities in Senegal coupled with their very rich sporting heritage made the decision to be stage there easy.

He said: “Senegal Athletics is a whole lot of energy, with a lot of very resourceful, hospitable and dynamic people, who understand and appreciate the issues around hospitality. It is a country with population that has a lot of diversity.

Okowa said that harnessing the sporting potential of the youths is a key component of his administration’s development agenda, stressing that his administration plans to use athletics and the combined U-18 and U-20 Championships as an engaging tool to create opportunities for young people.

He said: “For us at the Confederation of African Athletics, we will use athletics as an engaging tool to create opportunities for young people to see a growth in their career path and we have started to push this agenda through our member National Associations. We are using athletics as a corrective narrative; an enabler that will make our youths see brighter tomorrow.”

Okowa described the Senegalese government as a “great promoter” of athletics and sports in general.

Over 500 athletes and officials from 16 countries are expected to compete at the Championships. The last weekend in March is the tentative date for the competition, but Okowa said the CAA Zone II secretariat will fine tune the dates for the event.