By Bernard Turay in London
The President of the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone Henry Moore has said that the two Sierra Leonean athletes in this year Olympic Games in London are determined to spring surprises especially the female athlete Ola Sesay who is very hopeful of winning at least a bronze medal.
Moore made this statement to this medium after visiting the two athletes at the Olympic Village in London on Monday July 30th 2012.
Asked why only 6 people from Sierra Leone marched during the open ceremony, the NOC President said the number of participants was determined by the number of athletes representing each country. “We only have two athletes so they were accompanied by four officials,” he said.
Moore said there were “only two athletes because for the Olympic Games you need to qualify to participate…it is not like the Commonwealth Games or All Africa Games where you can just take athletes.”
He said the NOC did all its best to make sure that many athletes qualified by setting up training programmes Senegal but that only Ola Sesay qualified with B standard.
Moore said Ibrahim Turay went to the games as a non-qualified athlete because the International Olympic Committee always offer two spaces to any country for a male and a female athlete who fail to qualify to represent their country as they never want to leave any country out of such games.
The NOC president described this year opening ceremony of the London Games as “fantastic.”
