Athletes caught up in travel hitch ahead of African championships

In Lagos

The Kenyan team was on Monday caught up in the confusion that has greeted the 21st African Athletics Championships when they were forced to stay overnight in Lagos after specially arranged connecting flights to the competition venue in Asaba failed to bear the pressure of team arrivals.

The team, led by Athletics Kenya’s Central Rift branch chairman Abraham Mutai, arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport shortly after 2pm.

But upon transferring to the local terminal at 4pm, they were told they could not fly to the Delta State city of Asaba where the August championships will be held at the Stephen Keshi Stadium from tomorrow to Sunday.

Subsequently, the team was accommodated at an airport hotel in Lagos awaiting a chartered flight today to Asaba which is almost 500 kilometres away from Lagos.

Several teams were caught up in the confusion with Cote d’Ivoire’s star-studded squad even threatening to fly back to Abidjan but they were convinced otherwise.

FASTEST WOMAN

The Ivorians have in their squad the fastest woman in the world so far this year, Marie-Josee Ta Lou who ran the world lead 10.85 seconds at the Doha Diamond League meeting last May.

The other top Ivorian sprinter, Murielle Ahoure, opted out of these championships with injury and has travelled to USA for treatment.

“We are aware of the confusion and will not take chances in ensuring all is well with the team despite these challenges,” said Mutai.

Athletics Kenya chief executive officer Susan Kamau also accompanied the team from Nairobi.

But total confusion could perhaps be a huge understatement in describing the situation at Lagos’ Murtala Mohammed Airport on Monday.

With the competition scheduled to start on Wednesday morning, some delegations were even contemplating returning home altogether as the delay in connecting flights continued to bite.

HUGE BLOW

Teams from South Africa, Zambia, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Morocco, Senegal, Uganda and Algeria were among the over 500 athletes and officials waiting to connect to Delta State’s Asaba City, venue of the continental competition.

Had Ivorians withdrawn from the championship, their withdrawal would have been a huge blow for the organisers as they have the world’s leading sprinters on their roster.

Technical officials were also stranded, with some having spent three days in Lagos.

With slots for the IAAF Continental Cup to be held on September 8 and 9 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, at stake, athletes are taking these African championships with extra zeal.

Kenya’s fast-rising high jumper Mathew Sawe, who last month cleared two metres and 30 centimetres to shatter the national record, was among athletes caught up in the melee.

The Kenya Defence Forces jumper had just arrived from his Paris training base and was awaiting the arrival of the Kenyan team which eventually landed shortly after 2pm, local time.

LEAVE PASSPORT

“I’ve even had to leave my passport at the immigration as they have taken quite a bit getting our visas sorted out,” said Sawe as he dashed to latch onto the first chartered flight out of The Murtala Mohammed Airport to Asaba earlier in the day at about 11am.

Also in the jam were Confederation of African Athletics President Malboum Kalkaba of Cameroon and the continental body’s secretary general Lamine Fathy along with Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei and Kenyan technical officials Dimmy Kisalu and George Kariuki.

“Be patient please and give me your names so that I can get you the boarding passes,” an official of the championships’ Local Organising Committee told the impatient crowd.

Even then, boarding passes were dished out like confetti even without airline officials asking for identification from the travelers.

Apparently, there is just one aircraft chartered from local carrier Max Air Limited that was making the trips to and from Lagos from Asaba causing the agonizing delay.

Later in the afternoon, the organisers were forced to charter two more aircraft to clear the backlog.

REGULAR FLIGHTS

With no regular flights to Asaba, which is about 500 kilometres away from Lagos, organisers of these championships have chartered aircraft to transfer arriving delegations to the Delta State city.

But inclement weather on Sunday meant some internal flights quite a number of athletes and officials had to be accommodated in hotels around Lagos awaiting transfer on Monday.

With athletes increasingly getting tired and anxious, officials of the South African and Algerian teams were contemplating hiring their own plane to get to Asaba in time, but were eventually booked on an Overland Flight charter.

The South Africans were in Lagos on Sunday morning and couldn’t endure a second day of waiting for transfers which meant they lost invaluable training time.

These championships were handed to Asaba largely on the strength of Delta State’s philanthropy with the state taking up the tab to host the competition at the refurbished Stephen Keshi Stadium.

But with no regular flights to Asaba, the hosts have been caught between a rock and a hard place much to the chagrin of athletes, officials and journalists.