We were up at 5.00am on Saturday to go to the Aksum stadium. By the time we arrived things were in full swing. We were there at the invitation of the University athletics squad. There are some very talented runners not least Berihu the current Ethiopian Universities 800m champion. We watched a very impressive training session on a track that could so easily have caused injury; athletes were required to negotiate some serious looking ruts that had been created during the rainy season. Alongside the University squad were local athletes including a blind runner preparing for the Ethiopian paralympic championships. In the centre of the stadium some junior football squads assembled and by 6.30am their coaching sessions were underway; all this before sunrise!
It was a terrific and rather humbling sight to see so many groups showing real dedication. Facilities were, as you might expect, rudimentary and the equipment basic. In many cases, footwear was no more than plastic sandals and there was only one football per group. I couldn’t help thinking that the addition of some footballs, training bibs and cones would have made the coach’s job so much easier. However, despite these shortcomings, the enthusiasm was impressive. There was no shortage of talent either.
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