By hosting the 2022 African Athletics Championships, Mauritius wants to position itself as a destination for high-level sporting events. The country has acquired world-class facilities with the Côte d’Or Sports Complex at a cost of 100 million euros, partially financed by Chinese and Saudi loans.
When he sets foot on the Côte d’Or track, Eric Milazar, with a fully athletic look, rediscovers his sensations as a top athlete that he was 12 years ago. Three times African champion in the 400 meters and twice finalist in the World Championships, he did not expect to see a track of this class on his small island. ” VSis a Mondo track with all the facilities that go with it », Enthuses this national sports figure.
“We want athletes to say ‘wow'”
Eric Milizar is entirely in his own world at the Côte d’Or Sports Complex. Just like his contemporary, the spindly Khemraj Naiko, former African high jump champion, now director of competition for the 2022 African Athletics Championships. There are not many stadiums like this in Africa. We want the athletes at the end of this competition to say ‘wow‘! We have never had an African championship of this magnitude, with facilities of this quality », Aims this sports executive trained in France at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP).
Financed by Chinese and Saudi loans, respectively up to 37 million euros and 18 million euros, the project cost the Mauritian State around 100 million euros. It occupies an area of 19 hectares in the village of Côte d’Or, in the middle of vegetation and cane fields. Crossed by new roads, the site located in the constituency of Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, is destined to become one of the highlights of a new city. Ambitious real estate and development projects, business centers, according to the so-called “Smart City” concept, are expected there.
The Côte d’Or Sports Complex, although for the time being away from the agglomerations of Mauritius, is relatively lively. When it is not Mauritian athletes and foreigners in training camp, it is students who come to take advantage of the facilities. ” One of the big attractions is the aquatic center with the Olympic swimming pool “says the director of operations, a former Australian swimming coach based in Mauritius. In addition to the aquatic center, the site has a football field where the Liverpool Football Academy has settled, one of the British clubs of which Mauritians are very passionate.
” We have a training contract with Liverpool. We pay them royalties so that we can operate this license. Liverpool technicians train our young people aged 12 to 16, as well as our coaches. It’s a well-thought-out, well-run program to prepare the footballers of tomorrow. », assures Jean Pierre Sauzier, president of the Mauritius Multisports Infrastructure Complex Ltd, company which manages the facilities of Côte d’Or.
The complex also has unique indoor facilities in Mauritius, including state-of-the-art gymnasiums and an Olympic-level room for martial arts. Seen from the outside, it is the football pitches and their bleachers certified by the International Federation (FIFA), and the imposing athletics stadium, with its brand new track, which are impressive.
A big investment that is debating
The holding of the 22nd African Athletics Championships, which started on June 8 with the participation of 500 African athletes from 43 countries, is part of Mauritius’ desire to position itself as a destination for sporting and world-class culture. The Côte d’Or Sports Complex was designed for this.
Inaugurated in 2019, the complex hosted the Indian Ocean Island Games the same year before entering a period of inactivity which lasted more than two years, due to the pandemic. Hence the criticisms of the opposition parties who call the project a “white elephant”, a literal translation of the English expression “white elephant” to say that it is a massive structure that is useless.
The former Mauritian sprinter three times finalist at the world championships, now national coach, Stéphane Buckland, is more nuanced. ” We have beautiful structures. It’s well calculated. Congratulations to the State, even if the expenses are staggering. Now, we must now be able to value and make profitable these structures “, he hopes.
These African athletics championships are a first full-scale test of the facilities offered by the Côte d’Or Sports Complex as well as a test of its staff. The audience is missing from the decor. Health authorities are maintaining stadium restrictions, although elsewhere in the country life has returned to normal.
But it was not the absence of spectators that dampened the enthusiasm of athletes and officials. The rain and the wind at the beginning of winter as well as some malfunctions – failed broadcast of the events on the first day and systematic delay of the events – raise questions about the timing of the meeting and the organizational machine.
” We faced a few break-in issues that we rectify after each debrief “, answers Giandev Moteea, the president of the organization of this first major meeting at the Multisports Complex of Côte d’Or.