Investing In Athletics Should Be A Priority – GNPC Gen. Manager

Team Ghana At The Just Ended ECOWAS u20 Games

The General Manager for Ghana Petroleum Cooperation (GNPC), Mr Kwame Baah Nuako has cited that it should be a priority for co-operate Ghana to invest in Athletics.

Mr Kwame Baah Nuako disclosed this to the media during the weekend when the ECOWAS u20 championship was climaxed at the Cape Coast Stadium. He emphasized that he believes athletics coaching is one of the areas that we need to critically look at and invest in. He is of the view that investing in that area will equip the coaches with the skills to be able to train athletes very well to ensure we get medals when we go for competitions.

"For me, I think one of our key challenges is athletics coaching and we need to invest in that. We cannot just assume that we have talents and so the talents will convert into medals. We need to work on it and we need to invest. I think Cooperate Ghana should also be looking at supporting this”, Mr Nuako said.

Nigeria on Sunday won the 2018 ECOWAS U-20 Athletics Championships in Cape Coast, Ghana after amassing 33 medals ahead of hosts Ghana, who finished second with 36 medals. Team Nigeria won 16 gold, nine silver and eight bronze while Ghana had 12 gold, 16 silver and eight bronze. Burkina Faso were third after winning one gold, one silver and four bronze.

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Joy Udo-Gabriel won the women’s 100m and 200m double gold while as she beat home favourite Halutie Hor to the title. Rosemary Chukwuma also won silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m.

Mr. Kwame Baah Nuako further revealed that GNPC is very much interested in the inter schools and colleges which is the basis of producing talent to represent Ghana. He opines that one of the key reasons he was at the ECOWAS games in cape coast over the weekend was to convince himself that investing in athletics coaching and athletics is something that GNPC should be doing.

“We have been talking to GAA about especially athletics coaching training because if we invest in facilities and we don’t have the people to get them the techniques, and even if we have the raw talent it can never be converted into medals. So we are thinking about developing the young athletes, providing them with the technical skills that is through coaching”.

In addition, GNPC will be collaborating with Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) in the next few months in terms of inter schools athletics. They are also looking at collaborations that will be sponsored by GNPC in terms of how to convert raw talents into medals at international events.

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