Senegal is on its way to the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). The federations are busy detecting and preparing athletes. Among the judokas, things are already falling into place. The detections have been made and the work continues.
“We made detections in U14”. These are the first words of the national coach, Me Kalidou Ba. He and his staff work behind the scenes to prepare young judokas for the YOG Dakar 2026. The Senegalese representatives, detected to participate in this world competition, are all under 14 years old.
Mobilization remains the major challenge for the coach, but a whole process has been put in place to be able to bring young people together. “These are students from the 6th and 5th secondary classes. So it’s complicated to bring them together full-time. What we do with these young people is to try with the Regional Technical Directors and the Directors of the Leagues so that they can do training and have them every Wednesday or even every Saturday morning. This is what we are currently doing to be able to have our hands on the age group of young people who will take part in the YOG”, explains Me Kalidou Ba.
Me Kalidou Gata Ba says he is confident about the outcome of this ambitious project and remains convinced that “the judokas will be ready to proudly represent” Senegal at the Dakar 2026 YOG. For now, work remains his top priority.
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