Bodybuilding of Sunday, 23 June 2002

Source: GNA

Mr Ghana Contest Fixed For September

The Mr Ghana contest, a bodybuilding sporting discipline which offers a platform for young Ghanaian men to exhibit their huge biceps, triceps and other parts of their well-contoured solid body, would take place in September this year at the National Theatre.

The actual date, however, is yet to agreed upon by the Bodybuilders and Weightlifters Association of Ghana (BWAG) and "Body Trading Gym", organisers of the this year's contest.

Mr Osei Adumako, Chairman of BWAG told GNA Sports in Accra that even though the itinerary has not been finalised, his outfit together with Body Trading Gym located at Cantonments in Accra are optimistic that this year's contest would surpass all others.

He hinted that plans are afoot to ensure that the top three winners participate in the world event slated for the United States of America later in the year.

"At the moment, our focus is on the Commonwealth Games which is coming off in July. We can only finalise our programme after the games in Manchester," Mr Adumako told the GNA.

He said for the first time, Ghana would be contesting in weightlifting at the games which is being represented by Amorkor Ollenu King, a Ghanaian female weightlifter based in the US and rated 10th in the world, and Albert Abochie, former bodybuilder.

The Chairman expressed optimism about Ghana winning at least a medal in the division which, he said, could serve as a morale booster for the young ones. The Mr Ghana contest (also known as Mr Flex) has been surrounded with controversies in recent times over winners, yet, it remains one of the attractive sports among the youth.

The sport itself has been around for sometime, but was popularised by students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the early 1990s. And now it has become even more popular because of names like Dallas (Richard Eshun) and Martin Luther King.

Some of the past winners of the contest include, Joe Finger, Dallas, Luther King, Nsafoa and Edward Darko.