The Executive Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq. has o the 23rd May, 2024 received 40 medals from the President of the Sierra Leone Karate Federation, Shihan Victor Amara as part of enhancing working collaboration.

The medals were won at the Mano River Union Championship hosted at the Bintumani International Conference Center in Freetown in February this year. The items included 18 gold, 14 silver, and 8 bronze.

President Amara congratulated the new NSA Chief as he revealed that they made the visit to him so that he could bless the medals and to tell him more about their discipline. He added that, they wanted him to know that the Mano River Union Championship was funded by Government through the NSA for which they remained grateful.

“We appreciate your appointment and are ready to work with you and your team, ” he said, revealing that Sierra Leone is ninth on the Africa Karate ranking table.

Amara further stated that they have taken Karate to schools and are currently in talks with the administration of Milton Margai University to commence courses on martial art.

In his ststatemnt the NSA Chief said one of the things they are looking forward to doing is to encourage young people to engage in sports.

“What I see today amazes me a lot . I am very pleased seeing young people happy.

We express our immense gratitude to you for this feat. You are not just participating but winning. You are on the right trajectory.

“My tenure is about developing talents locally. This will exclude them from taking drugs,” he told President Amara, while narrating his background in karate and his love for the sport.

Beyond sport, Dr. Abdulai said they are looking closely into the need of providing scholarships to high performing athletes as one of his development drives is to build capacity.

He urged the Federation to take karate out of the confines of Freetown.

“To help sell our sports, I have held conversations with the managements of AYV and SLBC to be covering our national competitions live.

“Regarding your request for our input in terms of facility, we will put forward a proposal to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to help build facilities for your association,” he pointed out.