The Female Handball Team of the Ghana Prisons Service has for the third time in a row beaten their Police counterparts to emerge the 2017 Champions of the Greater Accra Female Handball Knockout Competition. The team won on a 3 -1 penalty shootout after the match ended 25-25 at the Legon Handball Court in Accra.

Superintendent Evelyn Ghartey, the Officer in Charge of Prisons Sports, leading the team to present the trophy to the Acting Director-General of Prisons, Mr. Patrick Darko Missah, at the Prisons Headquarters at Cantonments in Accra, was very thankful to the Prisons Leadership for continuously supporting the team and timely paying their tournament participation fees.

She appealed to the leadership to help provide accommodation for some of the players who come on sports release, and also motivate the team some more. She added that, “we have lost most players through old age, so I’m appealing to you to recruit more players for the team so we can keep defending the trophy.”

The Acting Director-General in receiving the trophy congratulated the team and its technical handlers for successfully defending the trophy. ‘I urge you to continue to work hard as the Service will do its best to support you.’ he added.

The technical handlers of the team: Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) John Amenfi, Chief Officer Anthony Odametey, Chief Officer Ebenezer Mensah and Assistant Chief Officer Richard Ankrah in an interview, said they were very happy for the team emerging the 2017 knockout champions. According to them, as defending champions, they redoubled their training efforts to win most of their matches to maintain the trophy.

They said the team needs more motivation to encourage them to work harder to win more trophies for the Service. “We are also appealing to the authorities that we get released from work early enough like our counterparts from other security services, so we can adequately prepare for tournaments.”

The Captain of the team, Assistant Chief Officer Mary Adjei, was very joyful for leading her side to defend the title. “We want to keep defending the title, but this feat cannot be achieved if we do not recruit more young players to make the team stronger’, she said.

The tournament witnessed nine handball teams drawn from the Greater Accra Region competing for the coveted title. They included the Police Service, Ghana Navy, Ghana Army, Ghana National Fire Service, Hostac, Cantonments Youth, Legonite, and Renijoe.

The Prisons Female Handball team were champions in 2014 by beating Ghana Navy and in 2015, 2016, and 2017 by beating the Ghana Police Service in the finals.