By Nick Butler

Meetings have been held to improve relations between Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe ©ACOLOPCollaborative meetings between Olympic Committee heads and officials from the two Portuguese-speaking island nations of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe have taken place in order to mutually boost progress.


Cape Verde Olympic Committee President Filomena Fortes, elected to his post earlier this year, travelled to São Tomé, the larger of the two islands which make up the nation, around 250 kilometres off the coast of West Africa for the three-day meeting. 

He met with São Tomé Minister of Youth and Sport, Danilson Coutu, after which he described the aim of the meeting as to ''exchange experience'' and facilitate bilateral partnerships and underpin international partners taking advantage of such experience.

The official then visited the São Tomé and Príncipe Olympic Committee headquarters. where he met counterpart João Manuel Da Costa Alegre Afonso, who is also a vice-president of the International Canoe Federation and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa.

Neither nation has won an Olympic medal, with each making their respective debuts at Atlanta 1996. 

Cape Verde sent three athletes to London 2012, including 17-year-old 100 metres sprinter Lidiane Lopes, while São Tomé sent two athletes, both sprinters.

But both nations won medals at the Lusophony Games in Goa earlier this year, the quadrennial multi-sport event for Portuguese speaking nations, with Cape Verde 12 medals, including one gold, and São Tomé a solitary silver.

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