The Gambia has been admitted as a new member of the international pentathlon federation, the Union International de Pantathlon Moderne, UIPM, just over a year after it was introduced to Gambians in a competition held in Dakar Senegal.
A UIPM press release stated that The Gambia, Burkina Faso and Ghana are the new African nations conferred with full membership while Pakistan and Thailand from Asia, have also been recognised as members.
The approval for the admissions was made at the UIPM executive board meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria last month.
The release announcing the new members said: “All these five nations have made clear progress in developing the sport this year under the watchful eye of their respective confederations.”
The Standard yesterday contacted the president of the Gambia Pentathlon Association, Saikou Jarjue, who confirmed the good news explaining that it is the fruition of a concerted effort that he and his fellow members in the association as well as the GNOC mounted to popularise and get recognition for The Gambia in the sport. “You would recall we took part in a competition in Senegal where our men came out with very good results winning gold and other medals. This has boosted our image in the sport,” he said. Jarjue further disclosed that The Gambia will host a pentathlon championship from December 26 to 28, featuring four countries, Senegal, Niger, Benin and The Gambia.
Asked to comment on The Gambia’s preparation for this competition, Jarjue said pentathlon which consists of four sports – shooting, sword fighting(fencing), swimming, running and horse-riding – is mainly a military discipline. “So most of the core players are drawn from the Gambia Army, the Police, Fire Service and other services and all these institutions have been informed and will send teams for a planned training and the international championship,” he said.
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