The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) join efforts to develop cycling.
This follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Parties at the UCI Headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, on Wednesday 25 may 2022, as part of Africa Day celebrations.
The signing ceremony is sequel to meaningful discussions between UCI President David Lappartient, UCI Director General Amina Lanaya, the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) ad interim Director Jacques Landry, ANOCA President, Mustapha Berraf and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Chief of Development of Sport in Africa Yassine Yousfi.
Kigali, Rwanda, will in 2025 play host to the UCI Road World Championships.
The parties agreed on a UCI Cycling Development Strategy in support of African athletes to enable them be competitive by 2025, notably in the Junior and -23 categories.
Implementation of the strategy will begin this year, 2022, and this momentum will be sustained up to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and other major sports events.
Reacting to the signing, ANOCA President, Mustapha Berraf, had this to say:
“We are quite sure that our efforts thus concerted will be the glue for sustained progressive development of Cycling in Africa. We strive each to achieve the ambitious ideal of bringing jot to African Youth happy through Sport in general and today cycling in particular. I am personally satisfied with our agreement and fascinated by the accompanying actions because Africa is proud to host the UCI Road World Championships in 2025.”
Also speaking after the signing, UCI President, David Lappartient, said:
“When I stated in my Agenda 2022 that I wanted to take the UCI Road World Championships to Africa for the first time, it was part of a wider vision to strengthen our development work on the continent. I am incredibly excited to work alongside the ANOCA to ensure that African athletes will be forces to be reckoned with in Kigali in three years’ time. The continent is teeming with talent, and we will make sure that the whole world will be witness to that at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships and beyond.”
