The Gambia government, through the ministry of Youth and Sports, continues to match its words with firm actions in its quest to attain excellence in sports with the recent unveiling of seven coaches from Cuba – a country that for the past  decades has consistently produced some of the world’s top track and field athletes.

The minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Sheriff Gomez, yesterday presided over the handing over ceremony, which saw the seven sports experts distributed among three national sports associations namely; Gambia Athletic Association [three coaches], Gambia Boxing Association [two coaches] and the national volleyball body [two coaches].

In his handing over speech, the Youth and Sports supremo said, the acquisition of the Cubans for the three afore-mentioned disciplines is in line with his ministry’s policy to promote and develop other [sporting] disciplines alongside football so as to provide the youth with diverse sporting opportunities. "It’s also in line with our mission to build a corps of professional sports men and women who can bring glory to the nation by winning medals in national, regional and international competitions and who can create the right environment for the continuous scouting and grooming of talent nationwide," he added.

Mr Gomez is of strong conviction that the presence of the Cuban coaches will further help bring in the much needed leadership, talent hunting, effective and regular training of athletes and above all competitive local championships that can inspire national interests in the respective disciplines.

He urged the beneficiaries to make good use of coaches, whose acquisitions are based on the sports development co-operation agreement between the two countries in which the Caribbean nation will provide sports experts to the Gambia upon request while the latter will provide accommodation, allowances and mobility to the said experts for effective service delivery. For his part, Mr Sulayman Bun Njie, the chairman of the National Sports Council, said Cubans have made great strides in the country’s health and education sectors, hinting that their emergence in the sports sector could not have come at a better time.

Albeit baseball used to be the most popular sport in the Cuba, Mr Njie said the Caribbean island nation is also among the world elite in the areas of athletics, boxing and other sporting disciplines. Admitting that football does have an upper hand, Mr Njie - a veteran educationist - insisted that there is a great need for other sports associations to be capacitated in order to enable them compete regionally and globally with pride.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mr Yusupha Jaiteh, an official of the Gambia Boxing Association, thanked the Gambia government, through the ministry of Youth and Sports, for its unflinching effort in developing the country’s sporting sector. Yesterday’s handing ceremony, which was chaired by the Youth and Sports Permanent Secretary, Mr Mambajicky Njie, was attended by the Cuban ambassador to the Gambia, honorable Ines Fors Fernandez, members of various sports associations and scores of other sports dignitaries.