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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
AFRICAN Union Sports Council Region Five general manager Stanley Mutoya says they are happy with the way preparations are going for the Under-20 Youth Games scheduled for Luanda, Angola, in December.

The Region Five Under-20 Games are set to run from December 9 to 18.

Participants will compete in athletics, boxing, basketball, swimming, judo, athletics for people with visual impairment, tennis, football and netball.

A new sport code, gymnastics, has also been introduced at this year’s Games which are expected to feature 10 countries — Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Mutoya said they had a chefs de mission meeting last week in Luanda where the countries representatives had the opportunity to tour the Games Village and the facilities to be used during the competition.

“We’ve just came back from Angola last week where we had a chefs de mission meeting and nine out of the 10 countries participated.

“We only had Mozambique who were not represented but they sent their apology and report.

“We were able to take the chefs through the Games Village so that they see where their athletes will be staying. I must say the chefs were quite satisfied with the Games Village.

“Already as we speak we have 1 500 athletes and officials that have been entered in our entry by sport and number.

“We were also able to walk through with the chefs on the general rules of the Games as well as the chefs de mission’s manual and the accreditation manual because we are already starting accreditation process. And therefore countries needed to understand the process itself and privileges that are attained to various categories in the accreditation process.

“Quite critical in the accreditation I think it is the process of media accreditation which we would like countries to appreciate and start on time so that we don’t have problems,” said Mutoya.

The AUSC Region Five general manager said they are expecting to finalise the competition schedule when they meet in July.