Athletes get a little help from friends

China builds stadiums in Africa, while Chinese runners learn from African champions

The earliest example of Sino-Africa sports cooperation can be traced back to China's aid to African countries in the 1970s, which included material assistance such as stadiums and university sports facilities. As time goes by, China's development is not only helpful in improving the livelihood of the Chinese but also, through a series of exchanges and cooperation, it is beneficial to African people.

Through the joint efforts of the Chinese government and African countries, numerous sports landmarks such as the Moi International Sports Center in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the Tanzanian National Stadium and also the main stadium ready to be put in use during the coming 11th African Games in Brazzaville, in the Republic of the Congo, have played a huge role in sports.

China always attaches great importance to African sports exchanges and cooperation. Since the 1980s, China has stepped up educational material assistance to African countries, such as encouraging and supporting Chinese colleges and universities to carry out inter-school cooperation and exchanges with their African counterparts.

After the 2006 China-Africa Cooperation Forum, and under the framework of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing Summit Declaration, ties were strengthened. They pushed forward more frequent sports team exchange visits, training courses and training camps. Also, school coaches were sent, sports equipment and other forms of aid were donated, which helped program develop at a competitive level. It is particularly worth mentioning that the Chinese martial arts team has, since 2009, paid a number of friendly visits to Gabon, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa and Liberia, putting on a total of 14 martial arts performances.

With the deepening of China-Africa trade and economic cooperation, the Chinese government in recent years has been trying to send its national track and field, soccer and other competitive sports professionals to African countries such as Ethiopia, Cameroon, Kenya and Tanzania for plateau skills training and strength and endurance training.

With China's sports industry continuing to accelerate toward marketization and deepened cooperation with traditional African athletics powerhouses, Chinese athletes have realized what factors are hindering the development of Chinese track and field. At present, the Chinese national athletics team has completely lost its competitive edge at the Olympics and World Championships. Only a few people can obtain qualification to these events and the team ranks 30th, so there is a silver lining in terms of the development of vocational athletes because there is room for growth.

China does not lack talent. In the eyes of many professionals, what thwarts the progress of the Chinese professional marathon is not talent or race, but rather the Chinese games system. China's women's middle and long-distance team hired international consultants from Kenya and Ethiopia in 2013. They questioned the system, which mandates that athletes have to earn points in all kinds of domestic championships in order to qualify for the National Games. In their view, these tournaments have disrupted their year-round training program, which put the game scores as a priority regardless of circumstance. This bias has become the biggest obstacle to managing an athlete's training.

On the other hand most African track and field athletes and coaches do not belong to the jurisdiction of their country's athletic association. The management of athletes belongs to agents. Agents supply athletes to professional tournaments and athletes also rely on them to arrange appearances. Many of the biggest names in the international broker circle have their own training bases in Europe and the United States, and have signed a number of African track and field athletes, most of whom are Kenyans, and some Ethiopians.

Compared with other countries, Kenya has more professional athletes but rarely as part of a team. Many of them compete individually. In China, because of the need to compete in the national system's prescribed domestic tournaments, many Chinese athletes may not be able to participate in more international competitions. Not only do they lose a lot of opportunities to compete together and interact with high-level athletes, from a personal perspective Chinese athletes are unable to get extra bonuses and appearance fees from foreign commercial events.

However, relying on local team wages, subsidies and the national team's performance bonuses, sustaining long-distance running as a career is a demanding task. If we can reform the present National Games scoring system maybe we can see more athletes like Li Na - the retired Chinese tennis star - in the spotlight.

It is not difficult to foresee that sports will further promote the vigorous development of China-Africa relations. "Ping-pong diplomacy" promoted Sino-US relations. Therefore, sport is an integral part of peace. When "peace" is no longer a figurative term, it might unify the perspective of China and Africa in a real sense.

The author is a researcher at Shanghai Research Institute of Sports Science.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 08/07/2015 page9)