As of Sunday 27th July 2008, Seychelles will welcome athletes from 6 countries in the Indian Ocean Region for the 6th edition of the CJSOI games.
The ‘Comite de Jeunesse Sportive Ocean Indien’ (CJSOI) was created in 1994 by sports ministers of the Indian Ocean region in order to give junior athletes of the region an opportunity to participate in sports and cultural activities at a high level.
The Committee was made up of Madagascar, Mauritius, Comores and Seychelles but was joined later by Reunion, Djibouti and Mayotte. It was agreed by the ministers that the competition will be organized every two years to prepare athletes for other higher level competitions like Indian Ocean Games, All Africa Games etc.
The 1st competition in 1995 was organized by Mauritius, followed in 1999 by Seychelles, 2001 in Madagascar, 2004 in Reunion, and 2006 in Mauritius. So now in 2008, Seychelles will once again be hosting the games since both Mayotte and Djibouti have so far been unable to host the games for budgetary reasons.
The junior athletes from the seven countries will participate in 6 sporting events: Athletics at the Stad Linite and Stad Popiler, Badminton at the School Meal Centre, Basketball at the Victoria Gymnasium and Palais des Sports, Football at the Stad Linite and Astro Turf, Table Tennis at the Dojo Roche Caiman and Volleyball at the Palais des Sports.
In order to ensure smooth organization of the games locally an office has been established directly under the leadership of Minister Vincent Meriton as the President with a Headquarters for the Games under the leadership of Mr. Eric Arnephy. Furthermore, for the selection of quality athletes for these events, since the beginning of this year, several competitions between secondary schools have been organized.
Four important elements for the games are already in placed: the logo for the competition created by Michael Finesse, the Games Anthem – Losean produced by Daniel Adrienne and Michel Desnousse, a Games Newsletter entitled Archipel and a website: www.cjsoi.seychelles.sc
The organization of the games has been possible thanks to a good partnership between the government and the private sector. Although the organizers have still not been able to get their estimated budget of Sr.17.8 m, Government has already given 8.8m with 2.875m from the private sector.
All athletes will be housed at the Games Village on Ile Perseverance. So all is ready and the big rendez-vous is set for Sunday 27th July until Saturday 2nd August. We wish everyone an enjoyable CJSOI Games!