Koforidua (E/R), March 27, GNA – Mr. Charles Osei Asibey the 2nd Vice President of Ghana Athletics (GAA), insists that Ghana Athletics is not dead as being perceived but rather, the sport lacks investment.
He said, “Athletics is Ghana’s prime and image saving sport as it has often climaxed Ghana’s participation in major international sporting events like the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and the Africa Games”.
Mr. Osei Asibey who also doubles as the General Secretary of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Koforidua during the Circuit III Athletics organised by the GAA on Saturday.
He recounted the breaking of about 80 per cent existing national athletics records, the latest by ever improving Benjamin Azamati on Friday, the sterling performances of the men relay team at the 2019 Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco, and the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, all in recent times.
He insisted that resources were the bane as the budget for sports was often channelled to football, hence athletes like other sports were unable to access the allocation to enable them organize competitions to develop and unearth more talents.
“Corporate Institutions are also unable to invest in sports because of various economic reasons, but we at Ghana Athletics have in our small ways through strategic partnership and friends sustained athletics,” he noted.
He added that “Athletics is a top brand and the mother of all sports. All we advocate for is financial investment by Government and corporate Ghana. Athletics would produce high level performers and world leaders in Track and Field”.
The Circuit III Athletics championship in Koforidua, one of the many competitions in the year by Ghana Athletics, was dominated by Ghana Armed Forces and attended by teams from Eastern, Volta, Greater Accra Regions, and the Security Services.
The board of Ghana Athletics, former President Professor Francis Dodoo, Directors of Joy Industries and Django Drinks who supported the event and top officials within the Eastern Region.
Kumasi would host the next athletics event on the weekend of April 2, 2022.
GNA