Angola wins less medals, but achieves goals

Angola, Lisbon – Angola managed to win one gold, three silver and seven bronze medals, finishing in the fourth place, in the 7th Games of the Portuguese Speaking Countries Community (CPLP) held in Mafra, Portugal, on 7-15 July.  In  the general standing, the top three positions were occupied by Portugal (first, with 17 gold, six silver and four bronze), followed by Brazil (7 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze) and Mozambique (2 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze medals).     Cape Verde (1 silver and 3 bronze), East Timor (1 silver, surprisingly won in football), and São Tomé e Príncipe (no medal) came in the subsequent positions. Although the country did not win the same or higher number of medals compared to the previous (6th) CPLP Games, held in 2010 in Maputo, Mozambique, in which Angola ended in the third place (3 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze medals), the national director for Sports, Raimundo Ricardo, said that the goals in Mafra were achieved. “With the exception of athletics, collectively Angola finished in the third place (…)”, he said, further criticising the “very strange” way in which two of the country’s main athletes were expelled from the team during the medical inspection.