Sports News of Sunday, 2 October 2011

Source: GNA

Ghana's participation at All Africa Games to be investigated

Accra, Oct. 2, GNA - A five-member Committee has been formed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to investigate Ghana's preparations, participation and performance at the just ended 10th All Africa Games (AAG) held in Maputo, Mozambique recently.

The Committee according to information gathered by GNA Sports was to enable the Ministry to find solutions to the numerous problems that affecte= d the performance of 93Team Ghana" at the event and to ensure an improved output in future events.

The formation of the Committee, according to the Ministry was also necessitated by the general view that Team Ghana could have performed bette= r if the numerous organizational problems had been avoided, despite winning 1= 9 medals to place 12th on the medal table. The Committee will be headed by Nii Atode Din Barima, President of the Ghana Karate-Do Association (GKA), and a businessman and management consultant, with Professor Francis Dodoo, President of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) and Randy Abbey, former Chairman of the Black Stars Management Committee and an Executive member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as members.

A representative each from the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) and the National Sports Authority (NSA) would make up the list of five members for the Committee, with Kevin A. Antierkuu, Deputy Director of the Ministry playing the role of a secretary to the Committee.

According to the information, the Committee was to examine Team Ghana's preparations, which includes camping, formation of International Games Committee, information flow to Sports Associations participating in the Games, procurement of sports kits, equipment and travel arrangements. It is also to examine the management of Ghana's contingent at the Games, boarding and lodging, payment of per diems, and other allowances and travel arrangement to and back to Ghana.

The Committee will in addition deal with issues concerning post Games management of the Team, payment of winning bonuses, awards to deserving sports men and women and officials and other issues concerning the Games which in the opinion of the Committee was worth reviewing. After its work it is expected to provide quality solutions to the problems, lessons learnt and make the needed recommendations. The Committee would be inaugurated on Tuesday, October 4, and is expected to submit its report to the Ministry within a month's time. Ghana was represented by 250 sports men and women at the 10th AAG held in Maputo, Mozambique between September 3-18, 2011 and returned home with 1= 9 medals, made up four gold medals, six silver medals and nine bronze medals to place 12th among the 51 countries that participated in the multi-sport event.