Mozambique will have eight athletes in Rio Olympics

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Mozambique will have eight athletes in Rio Olympics

6:11 CAT | 07 Jun 2016

Folha de Maputo (Fie photo) / Kurt Couto

Mozambican participation in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games will not consist of more than eight athletes, according to the president of the Olympic Committee of Mozambique, Marcelino Macome, who bluntly says that without serious investment in sports, Mozambique cannot hope to get athletes qualified.

Of that eight, three have qualified directly, and the remainder would participate by invitation, and by dint of how close their marks were in relation to the minimum qualifications.

At this point, only Kurt Couto in the 400 hurdles and canoe team Joaquim Lobo and Mussa Tualbudine have qualified. For now, any hopes of further direct qualification lie with boxer Rady Gramane, Paulo Jorge having been disqualified in March at the African Championships in Cameroon.

Judoka Marlon Acacio is also still in the running, as are swimmers Igor Mogne and Jessica Cossa, who will this month try their luck in Europe, though currently sitting far below the minimums.

This group of athletes and others may benefit from the vacancies awarded under the Olympic Solidarity scheme. Athletics, boxing and swimming are the only modalities still eligible, as judo and volleyball have already closed their Olympic Games access cycles

Given these forecasts, Mozambique may yet overtake in numerical terms its participation in the London 2012 Olympic Games, where it saw Kurt Couto run in the 400 hurdles, and Juliao Maquina and Neuso Castro box, the latter under the Olympic solidarity umbrella.

But Macome stressed that, without investment, nothing can be achieved.

“A country that wants athletes to qualify has to invest. And in Mozambique we only invest in football and other team sports – where our teams are immediately eliminated in international competitions. As I speak, the Mozambique Olympic Committee has had to turn itself inside out to ensure that the athletes even got to the competitions that qualify for the Olympics, which is not enough, because the sport is extremely expensive. So, with no investment, we cannot produce athletes with minimums. There are athletes who qualify without government support and are not even recognized. There are athletes in the world elite in the modalities they have embraced and Mozambique does not recognize. Mozambique only recognizes football,” he complains.

Scholarship holders fall short of expectations

None of the six Mozambican athletes who benefited from Olympic Solidarity scholarships has succeeded, less than two months before the opening of the Rio de Janeiro games, in making the Olympic minimum cut.

Unfortunately, lamented Macome, there are athletes who seem unable to improve their marks but continue to benefit from grants by dint of their federations’ negligence. These include Dutch-Mozambican swimmer Jannah Sonnenschein, who has recorded the worst times in comparison with her team-mates, including Igor Mogne and Jessica Cossa, also chasing the minimum B qualification.

Macome said there had been an assessment of the swimmers competing for minimums by the COM and the Mozambican Swimming Federation (FMN), at the end of which his institution had requested the transfer of the scholarship to athletes with better chances, but the COM had yet to receive a response.

Asked about the criteria determining the award of the scholarships, Macome said that it was the marks in national and international competitions.

“I do not know precisely what happened at that time, because the federations nominate the athletes – the COM is only the conduit. If my memory serves me well, there were 15 who competed for the grants, and six were approved,” he said.

Mamba fighting for his sporting career without a scholarship

The 800-metre runner Alberto Mamba came within a 10th of a second of the Olympic minimum time, but gave up his Olympic scholarship citing poor conditions and support in the Kenya centre where he was sent to train.

He now stands accused by the COM and the Athletics Federation of Mozambican of unprofessional behaviour and putting money before his job.

“Mamba is an athlete whose marks put him very close to the minimum. But the latest information we have is that he is regressing. But that is not what is in question. What is at stake is the athlete’s negative behaviour, his systematic abandonment of training centres without justification. As a result, the Athletics Federation and the COM decided to withdraw his scholarship, which will be passed to another athlete. But it is not only Mamba [who may reach the minimums]. Creve Machava, who is in Senegal and is going to compete in Europe this month, is expected to achieve the minimum, and could be the Kurt Couto of the future,” Macome said, adding that the withdrawal of Mamba’s scholarship does not put him out of the competition for the minimum marks altogether, but that it is up to him to fight for the marks.

Source: Notícias