Tokyo 2020: Africa's Olympic Climbing Hopefuls Aim To Inspire The Next Generation

  Tokyo 2020: Africa's Olympic Climbing Hopefuls Aim To Inspire The Next Generation By Admin Africa's two Olympic representatives in the sport of climbing, which makes its debut at the Tokyo Games later this year, are hoping they can inspire the continent's next generation to take up the sport. The duo are from South Africa with 20-year-old Christopher Cosser in the men's event and 17-year-old Erin Sterkenburg in the women's competition. Both athletes are desperate to see the sport develop across Africa after a total of just 22 climbers from two nations (20 from South Africa and 2 from Uganda) took part in December's qualifiers. Cosser finished clear of 13 other male competitors while Sterkenburg beat 7 climbers to clinch her Olympic spot The Covid-19 pandemic almost certainly affected entries with 500 people climbing competitively across the continent. However as it stands only Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda are registered with the sport's global body, the International Federation of Sport Climbing. "I am hoping my participation will be able to grow the African climbing community as a whole," rallied Cosser. "It is not going to be a quick fix but hopefully within the next 10 years we will have more climbing gyms, more kids competing and hopefully it can be more accessible for them and no longer make the cost effects a factor." Sterkenburg is also hopeful The Games are a springboard for African climbing. "A lot of people don’t know climbing as a sport but after these Olympics, a lot more people will be interested because they’ll see it on TV," she added. "Then the interest will spark in the sport because we always want new people -that’s what keeps us going." Like many athletes around the world, the duo are continuing to train despite the ongoing restrictions caused by coronavirus. During the lockdown last year in South Africa, Sterkenburg and Cosser had to make do with backyard contraptions to keep fit. Now, with restrictions eased they are getting training into full gear and hope their dream of an historic Olympic participation will be realised.