Lagos replaces Algeria as host for African Athletics Championships

Lagos, Nigeria has been confirmed as the host of the next African Athletics Championship after an agreement with the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare.

Algeria had been scheduled to host the event but they asked for a postponement due to the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic.

The event will now be held between 23 and 27 June, which gives athletes the chance to achieve qualifying standards for the Tokyo Olympics ahead of the 29 June deadline.

In a statement issued in Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday, Kalkaba Malboum, President of the Confederation of African Athletics and Sunday Dare, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development of Nigeria, the Centre of Excellence was affirmed to host the crème de la crème of African athletics in an event that will serve as the last qualifying event for African athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Dare and the President of Confederation of African Athletics Kalkaba Malboum met in Cairo on Monday to discuss moving the championships to the Teslim Balogun stadium in Lagos.

“The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Confederation of African Athletics are fully committed and working in synergy towards the delivery of a world-class Championships,” a joint statement read.

“In the coming days, more comprehensive details regarding the successful hosting of the Championships in Lagos, Nigeria will be made public.”

The biennial event had been delayed three times before Nigeria agreed to host the championships, which should have taken place in 2020 before being postponed by a year due to Covid-19.

The plan was to hold the championships in the Algerian city of Oran between the 1st and 5th June 2021 before it was then moved to Algiers and set to take place 22-26 June.

This will be the third time Nigeria will be hosting the Championship after Lagos (1989) and Asaba (2018) hosted the sixth and the 21st editions respectively.