The president of the National Athletics Federation, Bernardo João, said this Thursday, 22, in an interview given to the Kianda’s mailthat the lack of funds on the part of the federation could condition the coming of international athletes to the event and that only the reaction of the Ministry of Sports will dictate whether the race this year will be simply national or international, at a time that is just under eight days away from the usual year-end pedestrian race, “São Silvestre”.
Bernardo João guaranteed that the race will be a fact, however, the financial constraints continue to be an obstacle for the event to be held on an international scale.
“We don’t have the funds to bring the seven invited countries, including South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana, DRC, Eritrea and Morocco. The Ministry is working on the matter, in a communication from the national director to safeguard international competition”, he advanced.
The president said that the arrival of international athletes is not simply limited to purchasing tickets and arriving in the country: “we have to look at the issue of prizes, accommodation, food and local transport. We will wait as soon as the ministry is available for this purpose, to find out if we are going to keep the international race”.
Asked how communication with the invited countries is going in view of the current financial imbroglio of the federation, Bernardo João advanced that he has had “periodic contact with the countries. You know that when we invite people, it automatically obliges other countries to prepare athletes to come to the race. So, the preparation is ongoing, it’s not just saying that athletes can’t come because we don’t have values, no. There are other processes. We will wait for the ministry to be able to react so that international athletes can be with us”.
In terms of organization, the President of the Federation stressed that there are still problems to be overcome: “we only have 50% of the race equipment done, we have debts to pay, the entire process of the event is due to the opening of the Ministry’s hand to safeguard it. We lost a large amount of sponsorship due to financial issues on their part and they guarantee that they will only be with us next year, we have practically no sponsor, simply support, because to reach the sponsorship level there is a specific item of values for any institution or company to feel like a sponsor and as they did not reach this figure, then they are sponsors”.
Bernardo João also said that, for this year, so far, the number of subscribers satisfies . “By the time of our interview, 1830 people had already registered, a number that pleases our organization, the athletes from the other provinces will start arriving on the 29th, each delegation will be composed of 3 elements, one male and an equal number of female and coach or head of delegation”, he informed.