The Chef De Mission of Sierra Leone, Unisa Deen Kargbo, has assured athletes that the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will go ahead next year as planned. He cautioned that there has been a reduction in the size of the Sierra Leone delegation travelling to the Olympic in Tokyo.
Mr. Kargbo went on to state that the National Olympic Committee have received full assurance from local authorities in Japan who “have assured of COVID-19 situation via a webinar”. He added that all athletes and official who will be travelling to Japan would be required to go through a two-week mandatory quarantine during which they will be tested first in Sierra Leone and upon arrival.
He revealed that there will be no opening Ceremony, as it usually happens, for the 2020 Olympic Games, and also no team welcome ceremony. He said that after participating in the games each athlete will leave Tokyo.
He said that among the things that will happened is that they will only invite the Chef De Missions from the different countries to exchange gifts and the system of registration of athletes will open early, and will close earlier than usual.
He advised all sporting associations to register their delegation by November to January.
“We are very concerned about how to get back to training, as everybody wants to go to training, but they should not just take the athletes to training without doing proper testing,” Kargbo added.
He revealed that the Chef De Mission has to sign a mandatory clearance for every athlete who will be travelling to the Olympic Games.
By Desmond Tunde Coker
21/10/2020. ISSUE NO: 7935