In less than one month, the brand new track of the Côte d'Or sports complex, freshly certified Class 1 Athletics Facility, will host the 22nd edition of the African Senior Championships (June 8-12). This will be the third edition on Maurician land, after those of 1992 at Belle-Vue and 2006 at Bambous. Mauritius will thus join Egypt, the only country so far to have organized three editions of the African Championships.
Initially planned last year in Algeria, this rescheduling has in no way tainted interest in this event. Indeed, in over one month before the event, except Sao Tome and Principe, all countries of the continent have showed interest in participating in these post-pandemic African Championships, which represents to date, approximately 500 athletes entered.
The only dark side of this 22nd edition is that, due to the health situation, the competition could be held in closed doors. So, no public for the five competitions days, which means that the only way for athletics lovers to follow the event would be TV broadcast and live streaming on the Championships site.
In terms of infrastructure, the Côte d'Or sports complex is located in the center of the island and culminates at 300 meters above sea level. With a temperature that varies, on average, between 27° and 21° Celsius at this time of year. The newly-built Côte d'Or athletics stadium, with a 200 m warm-up track, hosted its first competition on Saturday 9 April.
In addition, the athletes will be accommodated in the north of the island, more precisely at the Ravenala Attitude Hotel in Balaclava, which is 27 km away from the competition site.
R.Q.
