Kosovo athletes have achieved great success in the international arena, but the lack of adequate sports infrastructure is considered to be stifling the even greater explosion of sports in Kosovo.

Infrastructure is one of the essential elements that an athlete needs to achieve peak results.

Leaders of federations and representatives of sports institutions raise the alarm for quick intervention and large investment in infrastructure.

The secretary of the Karate Federation, Nazmi Gashi, tells how the karate players of Kosovo do not have any training hall and that they perform their activities in primary and secondary schools.

"Ninety percent of clubs in the sport of karate develop the sport in primary or secondary schools in the region where they live. This is a big lack of infrastructure because to reach a high level, and a high performance of the competitors, you must have a hall that you have under control 24 hours, and you will adapt the program to the athletes. exercises. In this case, with three trainings that we hold in schools, you only have the extension in the region, you don't have success. Therefore, I fully agree that the sports infrastructure greatly damages the culminating result", says Gashi.

And according to the president of the Athletics Federation, Halil Sylejmani, the success of an athlete is damaged for 80% by the lack of adequate sports infrastructure.

"For many sports, when you don't have the tools, the stadium or the paths, it hinders 80%. An athlete, if he exercises or does training in an athletics track where he really meets the international conditions where there are also other accompanying things such as locker rooms and other issues, then I believe that the result, if he was here 30%, will be 100% because you see yourself there", says Sylejmani.

The Kosovo Olympic Committee (KOK) says that a large number of talents abandon sport precisely because they have nowhere to develop their activity.

The KOK spokesperson, Kushtrim Krasniqi, emphasizes that there are some sports in Kosovo that have no sports infrastructure at all.

"The success that has been achieved in these 10 years has exceeded the expectations of the International Olympic Committee, but also our expectations based on the infrastructure that we currently have in Kosovo. But, if it were the opposite, if we had a much better infrastructure, especially in some sports that are a priority even in the International Olympic Committee, such as athletics and swimming, which are known as the 'queens of sports', and precisely in these we limp as much pertains to the infrastructure, but also in other sports such as gymnastics or tennis and other sports, obviously we would have even more involvement of children and young people in sports, and with this when you have massiveness you will definitely you also have more talent", emphasizes Krasniqi.

The great importance of sports infrastructure is emphasized by the former president of KOK, Besim Hasani.

"The lack of infrastructure, or good infrastructure, is one of the five conditions that athletes and their coaches count that must be met in order to create the optimal conditions for success...Without good infrastructure, without modern and adequate infrastructure, you cannot to have expected successes. We have proven that even in these circumstances we have succeeded with the fantastic management of judo leaders, they have succeeded in not delaying the construction of the infrastructure", said Hasani.

However, the hope for a change in this situation lies in the commitment that the state of Kosovo has taken for the organization of the Mediterranean Games.Prishtina 2030", as the construction of several new sports stadiums and gymnasiums is expected./A. Bytyqi