Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) President has debunked claims that athletics is dead, saying there are more Ghanaian athletes in the African Top 10, 20 and, 30 rankings than in the last 15 years, including Dr. George Lutterodt’s tenure at GAA.

Despite mounting evidence of the progress made to revive the fortunes of the sport in the last four years, George Lutterodt, a former GAA Chairman, continues to make wild claims that there is nothing being done locally to develop talent and to introduce competitions for athletes.

Lutterodt, a one-time GAA Chairman between 2001-2004, inherited probably the best crop of athletic talent that any chairman in the country had upon his assumption of office, but his administration was riddled with accusations of individuals involved in visa racketeering running the show, favoritism in national team selections, and in some cases gross incompetence.

Not surprisingly, even though the Government in power when Lutterodt was appointed in 2001 was retained in the 2004 national elections, they chose to replace Lutterodt with Sandy Osei-Agyeman.

This was probably because of all the messy things that happened in the GAA administration during Lutterodt’s time in office. Although he has claimed on an Adom TV, Fire for Fire interview, that the transition from him to Sandy Osei-Agyeman was smooth, the news archives tell a different story: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/athletics/artikel.php?ID=83623

Reacting to Lutterodt’s false assertions, Prof Dodoo, on Saturday’s Radio Gold flagship sports programme, expressed shock at the claims. He said that the statistical evidence disproves Lutterodt’s allegations. There are currently a total of 25 individual (men/women) national athletes in the African Top 30 rankings in track and field, the highest in the last fifteen years. The data for his analysis came for the IAAF http://www.iaaf.org/records/toplists/ and from www.tilastopaja.com “There were only 10 Ghanaian athletes in the Top 30 in Africa when Lutterodt left office. There are 25 Ghanaian athletes in the Top 30 in Africa in 2014,” Prof. Dodoo said on Radio Gold on Saturday.

Lutterodt inherited a total of 15 athletes ranked in the top-30 when he took office in 2001. But, by the time he left office in 2004, the total number of athletes in the top-30 in Africa had dropped to just 10. Yes, there was Gaisah, Owusu, Anim, Nkansah, Myles-Mills and Simpson, all of whom he inherited, but where was the development work? He is trying to claim someone else’s car.

Dodoo on the other hand, inherited a total of only 10 athletes in the top-30 when he took office in 2009. Today (2014), there are a total of 25 Ghanaian athletes ranked in the top-30 in Africa. Of the 25 athletes, 22 of them where not known or were not in the Top 30 ranking list for Africa in 2009 when Dodoo and his team assumed office. Most of these athletes were high school students in 2009.

Under the current GAA’s watch, Team Ghana won six medals at the recent African Athletics Championships in Morocco, Ghana’s second-highest medal haul ever at an African Championships.

The young team came home with as many as 12 medalists in the 6 events (4 individual and 2 relays), and there were four 4th place finishes in addition to that.

Prof. Dodoo continued that the bulk of whatever success Lutterodt experienced as GAA chairman was the work of his predecessors since virtually no new home grown top talent discovered from 2001-2004, was successfully groomed to win an individual continental medal under his watch. “Lutterodt did not groom any new athletes through any semblance of a sports development program that he created” says Dodoo. “Available records show that the international debut for the following top athletes whose careers overlapped with Lutterodt’s tenure, who won continental medals during Lutterodt’s time, and for whom he tries to claim credit for developing, all emerged before 2001. “Aziz Zakari emerged in 1996; Vida Anim in 2000, Margaret Simpson in 2000, Andrew Owusu in 1994, Leo Myles-Mills in 1998, Christian Nsiah in 1996, Eric Nkansah in 1996, Akosua Serwaa in 1999, Monica Twum in 1998, Kenneth Andam in 1997, Abu Duah in 1997, and Ignisious Gaisah in 1999.” “By the time, Lutterodt came in as chairman in 2001, they had all already run world class times. Of course, they continued to improve, but it is wrong for him to claim that he unearthed or developed them; they were already overseas, and performing very well. We are yet to have him name a home-grown talent that he groomed, and who turned into a star, or even won a medal at the African level.”

Prof. Dodoo also addressed issues regarding his administration’s policies as far as selection of athletes and coaches for national duty is concerned, introduction of multiple new athletic competitions, and his relationship with some of the country’s top athletes including Ignisious Gaisah, Aziz Zakari and Margaret Simpson. With less than two weeks to the GAA’s elective congress, Prof. Dodoo expressed the hope that his reelection bid will be successful. “I’m putting myself out there for one more term. I’m hopeful that I will be re-elected,” he said. Meanwhile, several callers into the programme were impressed with Prof. Dodoo’s presentation and urged him on to continue with the good work. In particular, Mustapha Ahmed called in and introduced himself as a former athlete and praised Prof. Dodoo for his leadership and the scholarships he secured for Ghanaian athletes as far back as the 1980s and 1990s; something he continues to do today. Another caller encouraged Prof. Dodoo to continue with his good work and forget about his detractors, while yet another person advised him to quit the position because some people would never be appreciative of his efforts.