Leemisa Thuseho
LESOTHO’S African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 games chef de mission, Caswell Moru, says they have already started working on plans of resuming their preparations for the games.
The preparations were halted in March this year on the back of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
However, the Lesotho Sport and Recreation Commission (LSRC) recently told the all national sports federations to submit resumption plans.
Lesotho has so far recorded 12 case of Covid-19 and the LSRC has now started engaging federations in preparation for resumption of activities.
The AUSC games are scheduled for December 2020 in Lesotho but are under threat from the pandemic.
Moru told the Lesotho Times on Monday that they are collaborating with sports federations whose sporting codes are part of the national team.
“We have already started preparing our resumption plan and I hope by next week it will be finalised,” Moru said.
“Most of the work will be done by the federation, then we will look at their plans and see how we can help them prepare their teams while observing Covid-19 guidelines.”
Since the suspension of sporting activities in March this year, Moru said they have been encouraging athletes to continue training individually. He said even though the LSRC and the Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sport and Recreation are working hard to see the return of local sports, the recent increase in confirmed cases is also worrying them.
The future of the games is expected to be decided next month.
Even before the outbreak of the pandemic, team Lesotho’s preparations were already behind due to financial challenges.
It is just six months before the games but the team is yet to cam even once. Before sporting activities were suspended, some federations were still in the talent identification process around the country. Other federations already had teams that only needed financial assistance to execute their preparation plans.
The chaotic preparations also saw the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) withdrawing its teams from the games in protest of delays in the disbursement of funds to prepare for the games.
