The South Africa team leader, John Mathane, has reaffirmed his country’s dominance in African athletics by placing first at the previous two editions.

At a media briefing in Abeokuta, the South African team leader said Nigeria at two previous Africa Athletics Championships had always placed behind and ostensibly believed that the CAA U-18 and U-20 Championship in Abeokuta won’t be different.

Mathane said the reason its athletes were relocated outside the games hostel was basically for tactical reasons and not for sinister motives.

He said, “The village where the South African athletes were located was an hour’s journey from the stadium, and before the athletes could travel that far to compete at the stadium, they would have been worn out. For that reason, they relocated the team to a hotel closer to the stadium, about a five-minute walk.

Recall that a South African journalist accused Nigeria of badly accommodating Team South Africa at a village far away from the venue, which raised a lot of concern for Nigeria’s organizers.

Based on the aforementioned, the NSC director general, Bukola Olopade; Lamine Faty, CAA CEO and scribe; Aniefiok Udo-Obong, director of the technical and media committee; and chairman Gowon Akpodonor had to address the media to douse the alleged misinformation coming from the South African media.

Mathane also reiterated that Nigeria has been a good host and the South African team has no cause to complain.

Lamine Faty also dismissed the alleged maltreatment of any country. Rather, he thanked Nigeria for rescuing the CAA from embarrassment by offering to host the championship at short notice.