African referees—Salima Mukansanga, Mary Njoroge and Bernadettar Kwimbira—are set to make history at Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan tomorrow.
The Africans will handle the quarter-final match between Great Britain and Australia women’s football teams at Kashima Soccer Stadium.
Rwandan Mukansanga will be the centre referee, Malawian Kwimbira first assistant and Ngoroge (Kenyan) the second assistant.
In doing so, they will, alongside Patience Madu from Nigeria and Maria Cynquela from Mauritius, become the first-ever set of African referees to officiate a women’s football quarterfinal match at the Olympics.
In an exclusive interview with Africa Top Sports on Thursday, Kwimbira said she was ‘gratified’ to make it that far in her career.
“I have been to the women’s World Cup, for the under-20 and Olympic Games before but this is the first time that referees from Africa will officiate at the quarter-final stage.
“It might not be a huge achievement but it could be a starting point so that in future tournaments, we should have more African referees handling games at that level of world events,” she said.
The referees also officiated a match between Netherlands and China at International Stadium in Yokohama on July 27.