10:38 PM
Admin.
From September 1st until the end of October, 16 athletes aged between 19 and 24 are training at the World Cycling Centre’s African satellite in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
This training camp provides the trainees with optimal conditions in which to prepare for the African Continental Championships, which will take place in Burkina Faso from November 7th to 11th, and for the beginning of the 2012-2013 UCI Africa Tour. A selection of the riders will be invited to a second training camp from January until March. Some will then travel to Switzerland, to train at the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle.
“The African World Cycling Centre satellite is a first and very important step for the athletes,” explains the Centre’s Director Jean-Pierre Van Zyl. “It is an interface between the National Federations and the Elite level of each African country and further down the line the WCC and the international level that we hope most of our trainees will reach.”
The current intake of trainees comes from seven different countries: Burkina Faso, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Namibia, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Seven new athletes are in the group: three Ethiopians and four Eritreans. The others have already trained at least once at the Potchefstroom centre. They include Namibia’s Till Drobisch, who will return to Africa mid-September, at the end of his first stay at the WCC in Aigle and his participation in the UCI Road World Championships Under-23. The group of 16 trainees could increase to 20 in the next few days, depending on discussions with the National Federations.
Since 2005, the WCC’s African satellite has trained 435 athletes, including certain well-known figures who then joined the WCC in Europe and a professional team: Eritreans Daniel Teklehaimanot (pro with Orica-GreenEdge since the beginning of this year) and Natnael Berhane (signed for Team Europcar for 2013), and the Algerian Youcef Reguigui.
The 16 trainees:
- Arha Debesay (Eritrea)
- Meron Mengstab Manuel (Eritrea)
- Kudus Merhawi (Eritrea)
- Desale Kalei Nahom (Eritrea)
- Alaa Mohamed Mohamed Ahmed (Egypt)
- Mohamed El Hady Tehemar Ahmed (Egypt)
- Jerome Bamouni (Burkina Faso)
- Joseph Biziyaremye (Rwanda)
- Till Drobisch (Namibia)
- Abebe Alem Grmay (Ethiopia)
- Janvier Hadi (Rwanda)
- Abdoul Aziz Nikiema (Burkina Faso)
- Noufou Minougou (Burkina Faso)
- Laizer Richard (Tanzania)
- Tesfu Redae Tedros (Ethiopia)
- Getachew Yohas Atsbha (Ethiopia)