The first African Beach Games were held on the magical island of SAL, in the Republic of Cape Verde from 14 to 23 June 2019. The games hosted 54 National Olympic Committees of the African Continent, approximately 1’000 athletes and 11 sport disciplines and 1 as exhibition, Teqball.
One day before starting the competition we received the request to include Teqball within the Results platform and mobile app, giving the same level as an official sport in the program. Bornan made his slogan worthwhile here: Whereas other brands say, “this cannot be done” Bornan is already doing it.
Bornan Sport Technology was the Technology Services Official Provider for the games. These services were: Game Management Platform, including (Accreditation, Access Control, Sport Entries and Qualifications), Timing, Scoring and Results Systems. In addition, an online platform was developed to show the results of all disciplines in competition in real time. Content was created to show in the competition’s public and sport Video Walls. In addition, an APP was developed for the games in Android System (the most used in the continent), as well as the TV graphics used by the broadcasting companies in charge of the transmission of the event, both in traditional format for TV or in streaming to be distributed on the Olympic Channel platform. All of these services used the technology in the cloud, which allowed the Organizing Committee to economize large human and financial resources, as well as to optimize the times of implementation of technology infrastructure for the games.
Bornan Online Web Results designed for SAL2019
It was about a year in total of planning, working to capture, map and identify the needs of the Technology department of the Local Organizing Committee, and to assemble and design the package of services that would be used in the games, always with the premise of providing the different clients of the games (Organizing Committee, Athletes, Volunteers, Olympic Committees, Continental Federations, Press, Fans, etc.) the best possible experience by applying and using the latest technology in the market. This approach allowed to reduce drastically the use of paper prints during the games, as all the official results of the competition were on the internet, with 100% availability and accessible from any device.
Beach Tennis Competition Ex. TV graphics
As it has been a tradition in the events in which Bornan Sport Technology participates, at the end of the event it was donated to the Olympic Committee of Cape Verde a set of accreditation printing, which was the one used in the printing of part of the Games accreditations. This set, together with the lanyards, was our modest material contribution to the delivery of these games in the African Continent. There were more than 3000 accredited people in total, including athletes, officers, volunteers, staff, security support personnel, transportation, medical services, etc.
Pablo de Castro, CTO at Bornan, performing the integration of TV Graphics.
In addition to the normal challenges of a sporting project of this nature, there were also challenges in logistics, as it was the first time that Cape Verde was hosting a multisport event of this magnitude. The transportation of technological material back and forth from the Bornan offices in Madrid to the Beach Park in Santa María was another example of joint work between the Local Organizing Committee and Bornan Staff. It was a successful logistics operation between two continents for a volume of more than 200 kg of fragile technology.
Ariel Valdés (Director of Business Development in Bornan) commented about the games: “From my point of view, the key factor for the success of these games was the excellent communication between the Local Organizing Committee and Bornan. The LOC was always open to collaborate, to listen and analyze the opinions of both sides. It was very easy to work together because we had a common goal, to deliver games with a quality standard and the maximum possible excellence.”
Part of the Bornan Team in the days before the Opening Ceremony
On the other hand, Yann Craven, CEO of the SAL2019 Organizing Committee said: “The vision of the Organizing Committee of the First African Beach Games Sal 2019 is that thanks to Bornan we were the first multisport event in Africa to use a Game and Results Management system fully integrated and cloud-based in all areas of the organizing committee. This is a standard generally reserved for the Olympic Games. The customized systems created by Bornan for our games were state-of-the-art and are among the best in the market. However, what really differentiates Bornan from its competitors is the human capital to complement the technology. From the beginning until the end of the games, the Bornan team worked side by side with the Organizing Committee to overcome the challenges, find solutions and offer a unique experience for athletes, spectators and broadcasters that was truly first class and certainly an innovation for Africa.”
The result of the project, after many hours of planning, development, control and perfect execution: “The bar has been raised for future editions of continental games in Africa, not only for beach games, but for all kinds of sporting events…“. These words of conclusion were said to Roberto García (Director General of Bornan) by the top leaders of the sport in the African continent.
El resultado del proyecto, después de muchas horas de planificación, desarrollo, control y una ejecución impecable: “Se ha elevado el listón para futuras ediciones de juegos continentales en África, no solo para juegos de playa, sino para todo tipo de eventos deportivos…”. Fueron las palabras de conclusión dichas a Roberto García (Director General de Bornan) por los máximos dirigentes del deporte en el continente africano.
On this event Roberto himself has stated: “I think that at considering both, the organizing committee that was hosting the first edition of the beach games in Africa and on an island, and the service delivered by our Bornan team, we have demonstrated that still with a very tight budget, a very high-tech event can be delivered, and even a legacy left to the organizing committee and the NOC. Once again, proud of the Bornan staff who displayed an excellent job in SAL for their delivery and for the people from the offices in Madrid and Lausanne who collaborated to make of this a great event …”.
We could not conclude this article about the SAL2019 Games, without mentioning our gratitude to the kind and hospitable people of Cape Verde, who welcomed us for almost a month, to the volunteers who ran dozens of kilometers on the beach to make the games possible. Special thanks to the athletes, we work for every day to try to show with technology the brightness that they flash on the field of play. To the Organizing Committee and the Olympic Committee of Cape Verde, especially its president and IOC Member Filomena Fortes, for her trust and unconditional
