Gambian Olympic Chef de Mission Commends Chinese

Mr George Gomez Executive Director of the Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC), Chef de mission of the Olympics, in an interview with The Point commended the Chinese people for organising the just concluded Olympics with great success.

He said there was a Gambian delegation which comprised Mr Sheriff Gomez Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, Alajie Abou Dandeh Njie President of GNOC, George Gomez, Abdoulie Touray Secretary General of GNOC, Fred Lloyd Evans team leader and Dodou Joof technical director.
He said, " we used the opportunity to network with countries that may be of assistance to our sports development efforts. We had series of meetings with the Jamaican, German, Malaysian and Japanese National Olympic Committees. We requested assistance in numerous areas including training programs for our athletes.''

Mr Gomez said Gambia's marching dress was considered the best dress of the games and the OIC requested us to donate a set of male and female to be displayed in the OIC museums as a lasting legacy for the Beijing Olympic games. The presentation was done by the president Of GNOC Alajie Abou Dandeh Njie.

''We paid a courtesy call to the Taiwan NOC to cement our relations and help build bridges between the two countries, they appreciated our visit and proposed an exchange visit between our two countries,'' he stated.

Mr Gomez asserted that Sheriff Gomez, the Secretary of State for youth and Sports, led the Gambian delegation to a very important meeting with the president of the German NOC, Dr. Thomas Bach, who is also the vice president of the International Olympic Committee to present him a certificate awarded to Mr Obaman, who was The Gambia's national coach of football in the 1980's.

Obaman was included in The Gambia honourary sports merit list for his contribution to the development of football in The Gambia.

He was seconded to The Gambia and was the first coach to bring Gambia final in zone 2 played in 1980 in Banjul Box bar stadium which Gambia lost 1-0 to Senegal.

Mr Gomez added the Gambian delegation held further discussions with the German NOC president Dr. Bach who has offered to send an evaluation team to The Gambia to assess our needs and, based on the report, they will decide what to do to help. Serbia is also ready to consider a request for help from The Gambia.