Handball - Amos Mbayo: "This will be the first time the DR Congo hosts an African Championship in any sport"

Amos Mbayo, DR Congo have been awarded the hosting of the 2024 African Handball Championship in women's handball. When exactly will the competition take place?

Amos Mbayo: First of all, we are very pleased because this is a dream coming true. We have always wanted to host an African Handball Championship and that will happen in 2024. The competition will be held between the last week of November and the first week of December 2024. But we will soon have the exact dates. Next month the CAHB inspectors will come to Kinshasa again so that certain conditions can be improved, and after that everything will be settled.

On the infrastructure side, CAHB officials recently came to Kinshasa to visit the twin sports halls built at the Stade des Martyrs. Will the competition be held in these two arenas?

Amos Mbayo: We must thank the President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi, because it is thanks to his vision for sport that we are going to host an African Championship for the first time in any sport, and that is thanks to our halls, which meet the international standards for hosting an African Handball Championship. During their last visit to Kinshasa, CAHB officials praised the great work done by DR Congo in building sports infrastructure. Among other things, we have a very large Olympic restaurant, which few countries have today.

Do you have any idea about the accommodation that will host the delegations?

Now that we have been awarded the hosting, we are going to work with the sports minister to put a good organisation in place, so that when the CAHB inspectors come at the end of this month of September, we can present it to them. The Francophonie village meets the standards, and only a few improvements are needed. We will speak with the political authorities to improve certain conditions.

When you were re-elected, you had announced instead that DR Congo were bidding to host the 2028 senior women's African Handball Championship, and now you have been given the 2024 tournament. What is the situation with DR Congo's bid for the 2028 African Handball Championship?

We are not letting go. Even though we have been given the 2024 women's African Handball Championship, we remain candidates for 2028, but this time to host the men's tournament. Lately, on the men's side, we have very often gone to the Maghreb. If it is not Egypt, it is Tunisia or Algeria. On the women's side, the last three editions were held in sub-Saharan countries, namely Congo Brazzaville, Angola and Senegal. For 2028, we want to have the men's African Handball Championship here at home.

Amos Mbayo: "Our bid received a lot of support, notably from Senegal"

The 2024 African Handball Championship is just a year away. Isn't that too little time to organise it properly?

What we were missing was the infrastructure; now we have it. We believe we will be ready by the end of November 2024 to host this competition properly.

Which other countries were bidding against DR Congo?

There were Angola, Algeria and Congo Brazzaville, countries that have everything needed to organise an African Handball Championship well and have already done so, but it was us who were chosen. In Africa, DR Congo's women's handball team is ranked fourth. And our bid received a lot of support, notably from Senegal, who could not understand how a high-performing country like ours could not be given the hosting of the African Handball Championship. Our good performances worked in our favour.

Do you think DR Congo can finally win the title after taking silver in 2014 and bronze twice, in 2012 and 2018?

That is my main goal. We are going to start working hard to achieve that ultimate objective, which is to win the African Handball Championship, especially as we will be playing at home.

Jonathan Masiala