Sports ministry calls for focus on the youth

After the failure in the London Olympic Games, the Ministry of Sports and Culture has called on the national sports federations to focus on the youth as the country targets better performance in the Rio de Janeiro Games in four years’ time.According to the Director of sports in the Sports and Culture ministry, Emmanuel Bugingo, all federations must start now to prepare for the next Olympic Games in Brazil, where the country will be seeking to break the Olympic medal jinx. Rwanda has never won an Olympic medal since making her debut at the 1986 Games in Los Angeles, and the subsequent appearances haven’t given no sign that the trend is about to change anytime soon. Rwanda only won bronze in the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, courtesy of Jean de Dieu Nkundabera in T46 men’s 800 metre race.However, Bugingo has urged all national sports federations to concentrate on developing youth programmes, starting by going down in primary and secondary schools to scout for talent.He said, “There are some federations that have started to work on it (youth programmes), but it would be best of all of them embarked on a similar path as they prepare for the future.”According to Bugingo, it is useless to keep debating why Rwanda continues to perform poorly because, “we all know where the problem lies, there is lack of proper preparations (training) and organisation.”Four years to the next Olympics in Rio de Janeiro may appear a long time but given the history of Rwanda Olympic Committee and the individual national federations doing nothing until five or even a shorter period to the Games, one would only hope those responsible can learn from past mistakes.“We are going to put everything together to make sure no mistakes are made in the preparations for not only the Olympic Games but the other competitions as well,” Bugingo said.The official noted, “If you want to achieve good performance, there are certain things you need to do, and, among them, is to start with the youth and develop them for future competitions.” To achieve this, Bugingo said, the ministry is be ready to play its role and to work closely with the relevant parties.Recent history with the U17 and U20 football teams shows that youth development programmes, if well executed, can produce the goods.