Ghana To Participate In 13 Disciplines . At All Africa Games

Ghana will participate in 13 disciplines when the All Africa Games open in Algiers, Algeria, from July 5 to 23.

Ghana will concentrate on athletics, boxing, football, tennis, table tennis, cycling, taekwando, badminton, volleyball, judo, karate do, weightlifting and sports for the disabled out of the 27 disciplines to be paraded at the Algiers Games.

Out of these disciplines, Ghana will also vie for places in the next Afro-Asian Games, also to be staged by Algeria.

The first four places in every discipline at the All Africa Games will guarantee representation for countries at the Afro-Asian Games which will be held much later in the year.

For the other disciplines, namely kickboxing, basketball, gymnastics, handball, swimming, water polo, equestrian sports, beach volleyball, wrestling, chess, fencing, yachting, rowing and shooting, one of three factors have worked against Ghana's participation in them:

Ghana might not have competed in the qualifiers, or has no organised competition locally, or perhaps failed to qualify.

Prince Oduro Mensah, Chief Executive of the National Sports Council, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic on his return at the weekend from Algiers where he attended a meeting of heads of delegates for the Games last week.

He said all the 13 disciplines have duly qualified for the Games and would be motivated to reach optimum level to win medals for the country.

He said the meeting discussed the number of disciplines to be paraded at the Games, while delegates shared ideas over accreditation procedures.

The group also toured facilities for the Games and made inputs into the programme for the Games.

Interestingly, this year's Games will not feature hockey, a prominent sport on the continent, despite featuring at the last edition in Abuja, Nigeria.

According to the rules of the Games, if less than five countries enter for a sport, that sport would not be featured at the Games.

Story by Michael Quaye