Kyle, Osei arrives for Olympic qualifiers

By Edna A. Quansah
Accra, May 4, GNA - The Director of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF) Prof. Kyle Pierce and UK based Ghanaian weightlifter Forrester Osei arrived in Ghana last Tuesday for the Africa Weightlifting Championship in Yaoundé, Cameron.

The National Weightlifting Team, the Black Cranes will leave Ghana to participate in the Africa Seniors Weightlifting Championship in Yaoundé on Friday, May 6.

The competition also serves as the qualifiers for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

Osei, who is the current national record holder of Snatch 140 KG, Jerk 170 KG and Total 315 KG said he was excited to be back home to join his colleagues for the qualifiers.

He called on Ghanaians to support the team in their pursuit for a spot at the quadrennial competition, which is the biggest stage any athlete wants to be.

'Most of the African nations would be competing for spots for the Olympics, so we need the support of Ghanaians to make it to Rio,' he said.

He said that 'for me I am ready because I have trained hard enough to get myself to this point and I am hoping my colleagues have also done exactly the same thing to give us a great chance to get a spot.'

The Director of GWF Prof Pierce expressed excitement saying ''I am hoping to get good performances from my athletes because the competition would be tight''.

He said although he has been in close contact with the team, he believes the team needs more preparations and he is prepared to fine tune what the technical team has done.

Qualification to the Games will be based on the top five team scored on points and each country in the top five will have an athlete qualifying to Rio.

A 10-member delegation made up of seven athletes and three officials will be representing Ghana at the competition in Cameroon.

The athletes include Christian Amoah, Forrester Osei, Prince Nyarko, Theophilus Tackie, Nii Darku Dodoo, David Akwei, and Ruth Baffoe, whilst Prof Kyle Pierce, Abubakar Taylor and Kwaku Obeng will accompany the team as officials.

GNA