Athletics/Brava: Member of the association asks for the election of new members for better functioning
The member of the Regional Athletics Association of Brava (ARAB) João Baptista defended on Thursday, 26, the need to organize a new election in order to improve the functioning of the association and support the athletes.
This member made this statement to the press after a meeting organized by the Sports department of the Brava City Council with the association and the athletics athletes, to find out about the functioning of the association, the plans and the situation of the athletes.
“It is necessary to think about an election to elect new association bodies, to place Brave athletics on the level it deserves”, indicated João Baptista, recognizing that “many things are failing”, mainly the need to take stock, organize and monitor the athletes and their participation in the various competitions.
According to the same source, only after a new election and the reorganization of the association will it also be possible to support and work with athletes so that they can be prepared to compete with other athletes from other islands and municipalities in the country.
On the part of the city council, the councilor responsible for Sports, Mário Rodrigues, explained that this meeting was organized with the aim of finding out about the progress and functioning of the association, but also to clarify some complaints that athletes have made to the department due to to the failure of the ARAB.
According to this official, the association was institutionalized in January 2019, but the athletes have been manifesting “some lack of monitoring” by the same and at the meeting, the athletes said that they do not know most of the members that make up the bodies of this Association.
Mário Rodrigues advanced that the municipality has always carried out athletics events and supported athletes in participating in events held in other municipalities and after the creation and institutionalization of ARAB, the municipality continued to support, and it is now necessary to know the plans of the association to continue the process and support athletes where needed.
Therefore, he showed that he will wait for the association to present the plan of activities, budget and accountability to the chamber to see where the municipality can reinforce, together with other partners, the support for the association that directly reflects on the athletes.
He also announced that the regional competitions have come to an end, but that the athletes still have competitions to be held in other municipalities, namely in Mosteiros and Santa Catarina on the island of Fogo and the municipality has every interest in supporting athletes to participate in these competitions , recalling that some of the athletes from Brave already climbed to the podium in these competitions.
On the part of the athletes, Roberto Monteiro, highlighted that in 2019 the association started with a good plan and did a good job together with the athletes, but that for some time now nothing has been done, emphasizing that the association is practically abandoned.
This athlete underlined that the athletes are unaware of what happened between the members, justifying that the athletes did not receive any explanation and even at the meeting only the president of the General Assembly of ARAB attended, continuing the athletes in the same situation.