By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Four vertically challenged athletes say they are optimistic to qualify and represent Sierra Leone in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan later this year.
Adama Kamara, Mayeali Conteh, Sheriff Abbass Koroma and Jennifer Posseh Mansaray hope to compete for the first time in categories like Discus, Javelin and Shotput.
Sheriff Abbass Koroma is preparing to represent the country in shotput. He said: “We have been doing some hard training and we compete to test our strength.
Jennifer Posseh Mansaray is the Vice President of the Little People Association in Sierra Leone. She is also training to represent the country in discus and shotput.
“We are well prepared, because we know we don’t have the capacity to go out there and find a living. This is what we depend on and so we will put all our strength and focus into it. That is why we are training very hard” he told Politico.
“We want to go and bring a gold medal, we don’t want silver. We will bring gold by God’s grace,” she added.
Their trainer, Unisa Deen Kargbo who is also the Chef de Mission for the National Olympics Committee in the country, said they still had a long way to go but that he was encouraged by their progress.
“This is the first time we are dealing with little people. We still have a long way to go with them. We are only beginning to train them now to the full scale of international sport. But they are improving every day, and this is something that keeps encouraging us.”
Kargbo said that across the disability category they were preparing athletes to compete in five different categories.
“This year we have about five different sports that we are preparing athletes for…both male and female athletes. We have para power lifting, table tennis, para-badminton and para swimming.”
He added, “We have now drawn a training programme where we will give them serious training ahead of their qualification, so they will be able to qualify for Tokyo 2020.”
For people like Sheriff, Mayeli and the others, Kargbo said they would mostly participate in athletics categories and para power lifting.
The training process has not come without challenges. Some of them say they are even struggling for transportation to go for training. This has also affected the level of interest among unusually short people to engage in sports.
But Kargbo said that was something they hoped would change.
He said: “Now they are beginning to understand the potential they have, so by the time one of them succeeds on the international stage I am sure more of them will be interested.”
The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics is set to start on 25 August. Kargbo said in the next three months they would know Sierra Leone’s representatives.
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