The National Heroes Stadium has passed the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Preliminary test to host the 2023 under 20 and under 18 African Championships.
The test was done by Confederation of African Athletics CAA officials Lamine Faty CAA Director General and Aziz Daouda CAA development and technical director this morning.
This will be the first time Zambia will be hosting U18 and U20 African Championships, which will be Africas second Edition.
The CAA officials are happy with Zambia’s efforts in ensuring they host the Championships successfully.
Lamine Faty CAA Director General says he is happy with the Zambian governments support to Zambia Athletics in the organization and preparation of the Championship.
Faty said he had concerns coming to this tour but after meeting with sports minister Elvis Nkandu who assure them that Zambia will be ready by April he believes Zambia will be ready to host.
“We are happy with the Zambian government’s support to Zambia Athletics in ensuring that they are ready to host the competition”, Faty said.
“We had concerns but we are now positive that Zambia will be ready to host by February 2023”, he said.
Aziz Daouda CAA development and technical director is impressed with the state of Heroes Stadium which will host the competition.
Daouda has however urged Zambia Athletics to work on the running track by February 2023.
” Overall your Stadium is upto standard to host the competition, you however need to work on the running track “, Daouda said.
Zambia Athletics President Elias Mpondela has assured CAA that the track will be worked on by February 2023.
” We have made the neccessary arrangements to have the running track worked on, so we assure you that it will be ready by February”. Mpondela said.
The Championship will see 55 countries participate in at least 46 events.
The two officials will be back in February to carry out the final test on the Heroes Stadium.