GUSA cross country competition: Team UG is ready to defend the trophy - Coach Akoka

Senior Sports Coach in charge of middle and long distance at the University of Ghana Sports Directorate Akoka Williams Awunime says Team UG’s cross country team is well prepared ahead of the upcoming Ghana University Sports Association cross country competition.

The 26th edition of the games will come off on April 1 2023 at the university of Ghana sports complex opposite Ecobank. This year’s competition is themed; University sports: nurturing resilience, adopting technology, embracing humanism.

University of Ghana will host fourteen other institutions which include Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast, University of education Winneba, University of Professional studies, University of development studies and a host of other tertiary institutions.

In an exclusive interview with Univers Sports, Coach Akoka revealed that the University of Ghana is fully prepared to host the competition and athletes for team UG are poised to give off their best to defend the title.

“Preparation so far has been smooth and very positive. When it comes to the main event we have worked very hard and we are still working very hard to make sure we defend the throphy. The athletes are working very hard to make sure that we get the best out of them this year. For now it is left with few days for the competition so we really do not have much time.

Looking at their [UG athletes] performance this year everybody could see and they are even able to break their last year record when you look at the 5000m and 10,000m. There is massive improvement when it comes to their performance. We started preparations not now, we started long time so they have had a consistent training even to the national cross country and you would realize that it was just a trial for them so after the national cross country their performance has improved” Coach Akoka told Univers Sports.

He touched on the preparedness of university of Ghana in hosting the event and called on the university community to come in their numbers to rally their support behind the team.

“I will say that University of Ghana will always set the standard when it comes to hosting or organizing events like this. This is not our first time of hosting and then am sure that there is going to be a lot of difference in this year’s cross country because university of Ghana is hosting. So what we expect is that the [University] community and the students should come out in their numbers to give the home support to the athletes because the athletes are ready to do it for them and I think they deserve the presence of more students and the staff around” He revealed to Univers Sports.

The Spot light will be on Ishmael Arthur and Bassit Afful to make UG proud having had excellent records when it comes to cross country competition after finishing first and second in the just ended UGIS75 inter hall cross country meet.

Story by: Benjamin Sackey