The African Para Games will hold in Rabat, Morocco from 26-31 January, 2020, with 55 nations expected to compete.
Around 1,200 athletes are expected to attend the continent’s main Para sport competition and compete across Africa’s seven most-practiced Para sports: athletics, blind football, goalball, powerlifting, sitting volleyball, taekwondo and wheelchair basketball.
Most of the events will act as qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, which is set to be held between 25 August and 6 September.
However, talks are currently ongoing to include wheelchair tennis as a sport in the Para Games and the President of wheelchair tennis in Africa, Engr. Sani Ndanusa, says things are “looking very positive.”
Engr. Sani Ndanusa, a former Minister of Youth and Sports in Nigeria.
“We’ve reached a starting level of agreement, between the host country [Morocco] and the ITF,” the President said. “I’m at the centre of the discussion and it’s looking very positive”
The African wheelchair chief also spoke on the 2nd edition of the PUMA Engineering Wheelchair Open, which will serve off in October in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, saying, while the tournament is open to players beyond Africa, African players should take advantage of it.
“Because of the distance and inconvenience of traveling and cost of traveling, we brought this [PUMA Wheelchair Open] to African players so they can take advantage of it.”
Still on the PUMA Wheelchair Open, Engr. Ndanusa also revealed that there are going to be improvements in terms of logistics.
“We expect more countries to come, so we are going to add quality to the accommodation,” he said. “We are also expecting the Representative of the ITF to be present.”
