Shooting Sports To Feauture In 2019 African Games

SHOOTING SPORT CAPTURED IN 2019 AFRICAN GAMES. By: Eche Amos Shooting has become part of the 2019 African Games. The decision to additionally include shooting into the programme of those Games was taken on Friday in Rabat, Morocco, by representatives of the Organization of the African Union (AU), the Associations of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Kingdom of Morocco. According to President of Nigerian Shooting Sport Federation , Brigadier General Lonsdale Adeoye (rtd), "The initiative to include shooting in the programme of those Games was brought in by Vladimir Lisin, ESC President and ISSF Vice-President, and Dr. Abdeladim Lhafi, President of the Royal Moroccan Shooting Sport Federation. "It was strongly supported by Mustapha Berraf, President of the ANOCA, and Rachid Talbi El Alami, Minister of Youth and Sports of the Kingdom of Morocco." Nigerian Shooting Sport team participated at the African Youth Games held in July this year in Algiers, Algeria and won a bronze medal in Air Rifle. The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union (AU) with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC). All of the competing nations are from the African continent. The first Games were held in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo. The International Olympic Committee granted official recognition as a continental multi-sport event, along with the Asian Games and Pan American Games . Since 1999, the Games have also included athletes with a disability. In July 2018, Casablanca, Morocco, was selected to replace Malabo, Equatorial Guinea as host of the 2019 edition which begins in September.