GWF President hosts Olympic qualifying team

By Edna A. Quansah
Accra, May 18, GNA - The President of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF), Ben Nunoo-Mensah, over the weekend hosted the expatriate coach of the GWF, Prof Kyle Pierce and members of the National Weightlifting team who made Ghana proud in Cameroon at his residence.

The occasion was to enable the athletes and the technical team to fraternise with other members of the executive board of the Federation.

Captain of the side, Nii Darko Dodoo expressed the team's appreciation to the board and management for the support, which enabled them to make history.Their qualification is the first ever by the weightlifting team to represent Ghana at the Olympics

He commended his colleagues for their cooperation during the qualifiers in Yaounde and thanked them for assisting him to bring honour to the nation.

Dodoo urged the team to remain focused and train hard ahead of the Olympic Games to ensure that they do not only become an Olympian but a medal winning Olympian.

Head Coach of the team, Prof Peirce said qualifying for the first time to the Olympic Games was good news and thanked the team for their efforts.

The president of the GWF said even though they did not have enough funds to adequately prepare the team, they defied all odds to make history for themselves and the country.

'This is my small way of saying thank you to the team, and the GWF board appreciates what you have done and Ghana is proud of you.' he said.

The president noted that there is currently no major competition for the team so the board will try to get the team a training camp in either Columbia or Hungary where they could be monitored to improve their performance.

Nunoo-Mensah said after the Games, they hope to send the team to the Youth Championship in Algeria and Malaysia.

GNA