By John Agok
The South Sudan Delegation is off to Tokyo, Japan to join other countries in a bid to witness the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics games scheduled for July 23.
The delegation is being led by Madam Rebecca Nyadeng, the Vice President for Gender and Youth cluster among other senior government officials. These include the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Sports among others.
Dr. Tong Chor Malek, the Secretary General for South Sudan National Olympics told the reporters upon boarding at Juba International Airport that the delegation was consisting of nine (9) officials and 16 ex-officials.
He said that a part of the delegation was already in Japan as the official opening clocks on Thursday.
Dr. Malek said the South Sudanese athletes will represent the country on Thursday as the long awaited Olympics and Paralympics games starts.
“Our athletes in Tokyo with a coach, Joseph Rensio, Lucia William of (100-200 m) Abraham Matet (800 -1500m) , will represent South Sudan in Olympic Games set to kickoff on Thursday the 23rd July”, he said.
The Secretay General said that the government delegation will hold sideline meetings with senior counterparts and dignitaries from Association of National Olympics Committee of Africa (ANOCA)
“Our National Olympic President who is on his way to Dubai will eventually meet us up in Japan and hold a sideline meeting with dignitaries from (ANOCA).
Mama Nyadeng and two ministers of Foreign Affairs and Youth will also have bilateral meetings with Prime Minister of Japan and other senior officials from (ANOCA), according to the Country’s National Olympics Committee.
South Sudanese athletes are fully prepared to partake in the games come Thursday.
The first World event under the modern International Olympic Committee (IOC) was in 1948 that aimed at promoting participation in sports across the World.