Performing quite poorly in overall sports, Burkina Faso is slightly comforted by the individual trajectories of some very high level sportsmen and women.
The last time the west African country featured in a major tournament was in 2013 when it qualified for the Africa Cup of Nation 2013. That qualification was even a surprise as no expected the Stallions, considered as underdogs of the group to emerge qualified for the 2013 CAN.
Truth be told, the Burkinabe's have rarely been seen to shine in international football competitions which is the most popular sport in Africa. In football as in other aspects of sports, the land of honest men (as they are popularly known) have been and must continue to deal with budgetary issues as well as priorities. As it is, there are few resources available to provide the means of perpetuating infrastructural development, maintenance, training, competitions, to mention a few.
The only consolation so far for Burkina are the few remnants of individual embodiments of performances of the likes of former African Boxing Champion Dramane Nabaloun popularly known as Boum-Boum or the football ace Betrand Traore who is currently among the top 30 best paid footballers in French football.
In the less publicised sports however, there are other individual performances in athletics where a few have made their marks for Burkina. iron Biby, Za ngo Fabrice Hugues and Marthe Koala are a few of them who won medals are various competitions.
This problem is not associated with the Land of the honest men alone in Africa, because the vast majority of countries within the continent are battling the same issue of finance. The few countries who may be a little bit out of the woods in this regard are mostly concentrated in the northern part of Africa, other than that, it has always been a major issue.
We have heard time without number, how sports men and women make sacrifices by way of using their small personal finances to fund trips in other to participate in international competitions for countries sake.
It is not as if their is anything wrong with that, but when governments take advantage of personal sacrifices of players to consider it as normal, the expected glory in the triumph is dampened and of course, the will not to continue sets in.
Sincerely @izge.
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