Tamale, May 5, GNA - The Northern Regional Sports Associations have been inaugurated in Tamale on Wednesday with a call on the members to help unearth potentials and talents of the youth in the north for their sports development and enhancement.

The Associations are Athletics, Handball, Basketball, Women Sports, Cricket, Table Tennis Netball, Cycling, Tae Kwondo, Boxing, Volley Ball, Badminton, Hockey and Regional Sports for the Disabled as well as the Regional Sports for all Associations.

Mr Alhassan Suraj-Deen, Chief Personnel Officer at the Northern Regional Coordinating Council who represented the Regional Minister, Moses Mabengba performed the inaugural ceremony and said the north have a lot of untapped sports talents, who need the support to be unravelled.

He called on the Associations to work as a team and collaborate to realize their dreams of developing sports, adding "The RCC is ready to give its fullest support for you to succeed."

Mr John Bosco Base, Northern Regional Sports Development Officer advised the Associations to work in unity and adopt innovative means of helping the Region to chalk success in all spheres of sports. He stressed that if they have a common unity of purpose they can easily succeed in the talent hunt for quality sports men and women, which would help in sports development for the country to compete for sports laurels internationally.

Mr Albert Atutiga, a former national boxing champion and Chairman of the Table Tennis and the Badminton Associations on behalf of the other Chairmen expressed regret at the absence of Basketball courts in most schools in the Northern Region.

He said apart from the Tamale and Ghana Senior High Schools in the Tamale Metropolis, there was no such facility in any of the schools in the other Districts and communities, which he noted was not in any way helping towards the development the sport in the Region.

Mr Atutiga hailed the resurrection of the Associations, which he claimed had been in the doldrums for more than 20 years now and that their revival was a step in the right direction for more avenues and innovations to develop sports and give it a new lease of life in the Region.