By: SainabouSambou
First L’osta Sport Championship Game was last week launched in the Gambia. The championship game was launched gear to the upcoming L’OSTA games scheduled to take place in the country from March 6th to 12th 2023.
Speaking at the event, Hon Bakary Y Badjie, Minister of Youth and Sports expressed gratitude to be part of the first official launching of the L’OSTA sport which is a bigger event in the continent when it comes to workers’ sports.
“Our role as a Ministry and as a Government is to provide the needed documentation to show that the Ministry and The Gambia are ready to host the event. I congratulate MrJarju and the Executive for convincing the workers union to bring the L`OSTA game to The Gambia for the first time.
“In the Gambia, the tradition has been that we have not a lot of sporting infrastructure, and for that been the reason we always go out to participate in international sporting events,” he added.
Hon Badjie stated that the Gambia has the opportunity to host her colleagues from the continent of Africa or the world but for the L’OSTA, it is a non-commercial sport or sporting event thou competitive as it focuses on the benefits that sports bring to workers.
“In The Gambia, requirements are not very strived but, yes, we were competing with other countries especially Rwanda which is now considered as a model in Africa and if able to win is like a lot of effort has been in place.”
Meanwhile, in the organised press briefing, Mr. Bai Bittaye, Secretary General of NISA, said “All members were carefully selected by their virtue in the different backgrounds and their abilities. We expect this upcoming L`OSTA to work together as a team in the upcoming event to make it successful and Banjul can make a history of worker sports.”
MrSaikouJarju, President of the National Inter-Departmental Sports Association, also the Executive Director of West Africa under L`OSTA also explained the background of NISA in detail.