April - Department of Defence

sport
Athletes competed in
world class event
Article and photos by
Lt Col Louis Kirstein, SO1 Media
Mount Etna was a
silent witness to the
highlight of the military
sports calendar
when the city of
Catania in Sicily
played host in
December 2003 to the
third Military World
Games. Altogether 85
countries and almost
3 000 athletes participated in the
games.
The games are hosted under the
auspices of the International Military
Sports Council (CISM), which takes
place every four years. The aim of the
Military World Games is to provide
accredited defence forces from all
over the world with an opportunity to
compete among each other on the
sporting field.
This unique event gave the
SANDF the opportunity to proudly
display its standards, uniform and
flag before the thousands of athletes
and spectators that were present.
The programme of the third
Military World Games included
eleven sports codes, namely trackand-field,
football, cycling, judo,
swimming, basketball, volleyball,
fencing, sailing, boxing and modern
pentathlon.
Only three other countries from
the East and Southern African Liaison
Office (ESALO) region entered for the
With Etna as
witness.
games, namely Namibia, Tanzania
and Botswana. As South Africa is currently
the Chair of ESALO we supported
and assisted our friends in the
region during the games with transport
arrangements and by liaising
with the Italian authorities. The
SANDF was also complimented by
other countries for the way in which
it was involved in supporting the
organising committee with the
administrative arrangements.
The SANDF team, under the command
of Brig Gen Lindile Yam as the
42
Defence forces from across Africa were represented at the third Military World Games.
S A S O L D I E R A P R I L 2 0 0 4