The African U-18 Championships initially billed to hold in Equatorial Guinea from June 27th to July 2nd, has been postponed following the change in date of the African U-20 Championships.
It will be recalled that the U-20 Championships to be hosted by Algeria was first slated for March, before being shifted to May 12th to 17th.
However, following requests from several federations for a later date, the competition
has now been fixed for June 29th to July 2nd, thus clashing with the initial date for the U-18 tournament.
Making of Champions sought for some clarification from the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) as to whether a new date has been approved for the U-18 Championships. CAA Secretary General, Lamine Faty replied via email:
“The U-18 Championships are postponed that’s why the U-20 takes the same dates”, he said. “We will look for a new host country and new dates will be chosen after. Equatorial Guinea is not ready to host.”
Going by this development, the possibility of staging of the African U-18 Championships before the final edition of the IAAF World U-18 Championships scheduled for July 12th to 16th in Kenya, appears shaky.
Ideally, the continental event should serve as preparations for the global competition. However, it remains to be seen if a new host will be confirmed for the competition before the World U-18 Championships.
