Forced to cede the Dakar Arena to basketball, the Senegalese Judo Federation will finally organize its Dakar Open 2024 at the Diamniadio Exhibition Center, following mediation from the Ministry of Sports. The federal body, however, expects financial support from the supervisory authority to cover the additional costs. By Woury DIALLO –
The Senegalese Judo Federation has finally agreed to relocate the international tournament called Open Dakar 2024 to the Diamniadio Exhibition Center (from November 21 to 24). And this, at the end of the meeting on Monday between the Ministry of Sports and the federal government. It is also in these facilities that the Senegalese Boxing Federation organized, in March 2023, the Zone 2 Championship.
As a result, the orange ball returns to its home court and will be able to organize in the best conditions the next elimination window for the 2025 men’s Afrobasket, from November 22 to 24 at Dakar Arena. Housed in group B, the Lions will be in the company of Cameroon, Gabon and Rwanda.
Good news for the federal body, but especially for the State which thus avoids a waste which Senegalese sport does not need.
Reunited with guardianship today
However, if the orange ball can continue quietly to refine the preparations for its competition, on the judo side the file is far from being emptied. Indeed, Le Quotidien learns that if the Senegalese Judo Federation has given its agreement in principle to relocate its events to the Parc des Expositions, “it is because basketball does not have the possibility of being organized anywhere other than at Dakar Arena. And this, despite the fact that the Judo Federation signed a contract worth 13 million FCFA with Sogip to organize its competition at Dakar Arena. However, adds the Source, “organizing at the Exhibition Center involves additional costs. And the ministry is in the process of seeing how these costs will be covered.
Furthermore, according to our interlocutor, “the ministry, Sogip, the Federation and the service providers must meet tomorrow (today) to express development needs and the terms of their support”.
For the Dakar Open, more than 200 participants are expected. A meeting which will also be used to organize a seminar and an exam for more than thirty referees.
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