Burkina Faso: Hugues Fabrice Zango launches Maison Sport Club

Maison Sport Club (MSC) wants to give young Burkinabè athletes the chance to pursue a professional career in athletics. Led by triple jumper Hugues Fabrice Zango, world champion in 2023, world indoor champion in 2024 and twice African champion, in 2018 and 2022, the club is currently running recruitment trials to unearth the champions of tomorrow. Maison Sport Club's sporting director, Hugues Fabrice Zango, and his team chose the city of Ouagadougou for the first trials.

"It's the first time this has happened for athletics in Burkina Faso. I think that, given everything I've experienced abroad and seen, we must bring back new ideas to give athletics in Burkina Faso a new dynamic," said Hugues Fabrice Zango.

For these first trials, held over three dates, 3, 7 and 14 December 2024, around a hundred schoolchildren aged 14 to 17 answered the call and were put through a range of athletics events. "We had a lot of sprint events. We also had jumping events, with explosive power measured statistically, so we could assess the young people's intrinsic physical qualities and also their quality at speed. There were also triple jump competitions with a shortened run-up. That will allow us to gauge their quality and estimate how far they can go. We hope to find some good talents, but I was really pleased to see quick youngsters. Youngsters who jump far and who were certainly stronger than me when I was starting out," explained Hugues Fabrice Zango.

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After the trials, about twenty young people will be selected to follow professional training while waiting to take their talent abroad. Maison Sport Club also hopes to expand into other cities in Burkina Faso.