Sports tourists, who want to attend the Commonwealth Games scheduled for Gold Coast, Australia from April 4 to 15, 2018, will have to liaise with their countries’ National Olympic Committees (NOC) for easy access to entry visas and other documents they require to be part of the event, the organisers have advised.
Speaking in Lagos yesterday, a member of the Commonwealth Games Committee, Ellen Barwise said the organisers of the games have set up a system that would make it easy for sports tourists and journalists to get the necessary assistance they need to get to Australia next year. She added that the NOCs would be equipped to ensure that genuine travellers to Australia would not encounter problems while processing their documents.
She added: “The Gold Coast Organising Committee has streamlined the process so that people coming to Australia for the Commonwealth Games will get priority attention from the NOCs, who will help them through the process. We are working with CHOGM to try to facilitate easy access for such people.”
Barwise is one of the instructors at the Olympic Solidarity and Commonwealth Games Federation Zeus Workshop for African English speaking countries, which began yesterday in Lagos. It ends today.
Aside Nigeria, participants from Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Lesotho, Seychelles, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Swaziland and Mozambique are attending the workshop.
She revealed that the workshop is focusing on the database that would be used to track team members and contact details that would be used in getting the teams to any venue of their events at the Commonwealth Games.
Earlier in his address while declaring the workshop open, NOC President, Habu Gumel, who was represented by the body’s secretary, Tunde Popoola, revealed that the Commonwealth Games Federation created the Zeus tool to assist Commonwealth Games Associations (CGAS) in their operations and for efficient games preparations.
He said the Zeus Workshop has come at a time when “we are preparing for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas holding from July 16 to 23, 2017 and the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4 to 15, 2018.
“The Zeus tool will assist you prepare your accreditation for the above games… it will also help you manage yo0ur data and enable you create a network of knowledge sharing where the Commonwealth and Olympic countries speak the same language as far as sports is concerned.”
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.