Emmanuel Motomby Mbome, president of the Cameroon athletics federation, talks on the recent meet in Yaounde.

What balance sheet so you make of the just ended Central African Championship in Yaounde which Cameroon won brilliantly?

To tell you the truth, our athletics Lions and Lionesses have proved that they could do better if they are well taken care of. They have been in camp for more than two weeks and what really spurred me was that they were really disciplined. When an athlete is disciplined, good results follow. We pray this should serve as a beginning. We have two major events ahead of us, the All African Games and the world Championship in China. So it will be rather ridiculous that the Congolese, who were beaten here, beat Cameroon during the All African Games. They promised that it will not happen and they are determined. All we need to do now is to encourage them and enable to train well for the competition.

There were complains of organizational lapses regarding transportation, equipment and poor infrastructure. What really happened?

This was due to excitement. All Cameroonian athletes were dressed in Puma regalia. When a child is excited, he or she will end doing something funny. All of them had track suits and running equipment. When they talk of organisational lapses, things were not really the way they had to be from the beginning on Friday. But you must make a mistake to get corrected and these mistakes were corrected as the competition progressed. As concerns transportation, I would say the person who was in charge of transportation did a marvellous job.  Athletes, who had to go for raining at 7 am, had buses at their disposal at 6 pm. I want to thank Mister Simo who was in charge of transportation.

There were also complaints about the absence of spectators during this competition. Why do we have the impression there was a communication black out?

Journalists are more interested in football in Cameroon. Even the population, we lack that steam to encourage other sports disciplines. People prefer to pay to go and watch a football match than to get into the stadium free to watch athletics. On Friday there was a mammoth crowd. Even on the last day of competitions on Sunday. I am grateful to the inhabitants around the Omnisport stadium who came out in their numbers to encourage the Lions and Lionesses.

We should abscond from this attitude of supporting only football Lions and Lionesses. The athletics national team is referred to as the Lions or Lionesses. Once a Lion you remain a Lion and as the president of the republic, Paul Biya once said there is no minor or major sport in Cameroon.

Are there any athletes who emerged from the competition on whom you count for medals in the upcoming African Games?

We have promising athletes like Eleme who is a student of INJS who won gold in 100m, 200m, 100x 400 and 400x400 m races. There is also Adam Idrissa who equally won four gold medals. That is why Eleme was termed the best female athlete and Adam Idrissa the best male athlete. Coupled to these two, there is Mbumi Sandrine who equally emerged the best athlete in the jumps. She won gold in the triple jump and long jump events. There is also Djoumessi in high jump that is a threat to the world with a record of 2 m28. We also have Ndogmo Aureole for short put who won gold in short put and discus. We can see that there are many promising athletes coming up and all we have to do is to train and encourage them.

Any last word?

I am a very happy man. A father who trains a child and the child at the end of the day brings good results, should be a happy man. I want to thank the Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Adoum Garoua, for standing by us and I think that is why we succeeded. He gave us maximum support; materially, financially and put at our disposal, all directors concerned with an event of this magnitude. The organising committee did a good job because those who were at the stadium on Sunday, went back home happy as Cameroon emerged as the Champions of central Africa.