Five officials from Gambia Swimming & Aquatic Sports Association have been included in FINA Swimming Official List No. 17 and FINA Open Water Swimming Officials List No. 10 respectively effective from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2016.
The FINA Open Water Swimming Officials List No. 10 includes: Amadou Danso, Arfang Y. Jobe, Basiru Drammeh and Yorro Njie
Whilst the FINA Swimming Official List No. 17 includes: Yorro Njie – Referee, Cherno Jafaru Krubally – Starter and Amadou Danso – Starter.
The Technical Director of GSASA Cherno J. Krubally said the importance of getting FINA International officials is paramount and timely, because now these certified officials can officiate at National and International Championship and their results will be approved by FINA for any qualifiers.
Yorro Njie, the only FINA referee and Secretary General of GSASA, said “it has not been so easy to be recognised as a FINA Officials. Many training courses were attended and the team had to sit to FINA exams and thanks to Allah they all passed brilliantly.”
S.G Njie advised the officials to quantify their number of appearance in the coming international championships, for this is the only way they could climb the ladder of becoming world classic FINA Officials.
He further explained that any member of the Gambian FINA Officials could officiate in the following Championship:
15th FINA World Championships – Barcelona 2013 (ESP), 12nd FINA World Swimming Championships 25M Doha 2014 (QAT), 15th FINA World Masters Championship – Montreal 2014 (CAN), 16th FINA World Championship – Kazan 2015 (RUS) as well the 17th FINA World Championships – Guadalajara 2017 (MEX)
He thanked the Executive Secretary of National Sports Council Mamudou Max Jallow and his Ministry for their unflinching supports given to GSASA for the past years and during the course of this rigorous pursued to be international Officials.
The President of the Association Yahya Al Matar Jobe, expressed gratitude with his technicians and hailed them for bringing good names to The Gambia.
He advised them to be steadfast in everything they are doing, and strive harder to get to a higher level in the swimming world.
He believes when supported, one of them will surely officiate in one of the coming World Championships and Olympic Games.
The president finally declared the official distribution of FINA official I.D cards to their respective owners.
