THE Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) has chosen Zambia to host the 2023 Under-20 African Athletics Championships set for April next year.

The competition which will be held from 19th to 23rd April is expected to attract at least 50 African countries. This will be Zambia’s first time hosting the U-20 continental athletics championships.

Zambia Athletics (ZA) president Elias Mpondela said it was gratifying that the country was granted hosting rights of the showpiece.

Mpondela said the selection to host the championship stems from the country’s improved performance at the 2022 senior African Championship where the country reaped four medals including Muzala Samukonga’s gold medal at the 2022 Birmingham, Commonwealth Games.

“We are extremely excited as ZA with the development. The hard work has started paying off and we hope to take advantage of hosting the U-20 African Athletics champions to have more athletes take part in the competition. We are indeed grateful to the government for the continued support they are giving to all sports disciplines in the country,” Mpondela said.

He said the association will continue working hard to ensure the country continues receiving such opportunities of hosting even bigger tournaments.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure that everything is in place and we are confident hosting the championships will open more doors and motivate our athletes to work even extra hard. We want to groom the next big athletes like we have done in the past with the likes Sydney Siame, Rhoda Njobvu, Kennedy Luchembe and Muzala Samukonga,” said Mpondela.