Ghana Athletics President Bawah Fuseini’s Full Speech at the Press Conference Today In Accra
Address by Ghana Athletics President Bawah Fuseini at the Media center Accra Sports stadium.
Monday, 22nd December, 2023.
Distinguished guests, colleagues and family of Ghana Athletics, friends from the media, ladies, and gentlemen.
It is a great honour to be here with you today. It is the first time we are meeting since this new journey of the Ghana Athletics family began in August this year.
My colleagues and I, who have been mandated by the family to lead for the next four years are the fourth group since Ghana Athletics began to democratically elect its executive members in 2009. I would like to cease this opportunity to thank all GA members who have given us the privilege to lead the athletics family
in Ghana. And on behalf of the executive board, I am reassuring you that we will do everything within the authority you have given to us to fulfil your aspirations.
Since the year 2009, Ghana Athletics started the process of democratically
electing its executive members. So far, we have had four of such elections in
Ghana. The fourth election was the one that saw this current administration
elected into office on the 10th of August 2023 in Techiman, Bono East region, where Colleagues’ media personnel were present.
Names of the executives and all committee members.
GA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
• President – Bawah Fuseini
• Vice presidents – Charles Osei Asibey
• Vice President – Sulemana Zacharia Yeboah
• Vice President – Andrew Agbo Kitcher
• Vice President – Mrs. Comfort Selby Agyapong
• Organising Secretary – Salamatu Musah
• Deputy Org. Sec. – Emmanuel Appiah Kubi
• Treasurer – Christopher Darko-Amankrah
GA COMMITTEE
• Vice presidents – Administration – Charles Osei Asibey
• Vice President – Technical – Sulemana Zacharia Yeboah
• Vice President – Fundraising and sponsorship- Andrew Agbo Kitcher
• Vice President – Kids and Women dev– Mrs. Comfort Selby Agyapong
TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
• Chairman – Sulemana Zacharias Yeboah
• Vice Chairman – Fuseini Imoro
• Member – Salamatu Musah
• Member – Samuel Ayer
• Member – Emmanuel Appiah Kubi
• Member – Antwi Richard
• Member – Christian Nsiah
• Member – Robert Dwumfour
• Member – C.E.O
WOMEN COMMISSION
• Chairman – Mrs. Comfort Selby Agyapong
• Vice Chairman – Doris Afari
• Member – C.E.O
• Member – Laura Ledzi AmiAttatsi
• Member – Stella Sedame
• Member – Cynthia Narh
• Member – Mercy Tagoe
• Member – Evelyn Nsiah Asare
SPONSORSHIP/ FUNDRAISING
• Chairman – Andrew Agbo Kitcher (PAAG)
• Vice Chairman – Daniel Janamah Duut
• Member – Mrs Juliana Asante
• Member – C.E.O
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
• Chairman – Karl Tufuoh
• Vice Chairman – Rosalind Amoh
• Member – Muftawu Nabila Abdulai
• Member – Emmanuel Kwesi Akyereko Frimpong
• Member – Austin Baah
• Member – Charles Osei Asibey
• Member – C.E.O
SCHOOL SPORTS COMMITTEE
• Chairman – William Kartey
• Vice Chairman – Michael Ayeh (GES)
• Member – Timothy Mensah (GUSA)
• Member – Bismarck Tsorhe (COESA)
• Member – Ebenezer Ackwonu-Mensah (GHATUSA)
• Member – Marc Dzradosi
• Member – Kwadwo Kwarteng
• Member – John Arthur
• Member – CEO
MEDICAL COMMITTEE
• General Practitioner – Dr. Mabel Awurabena Aboa
• Physiotherapist – Dr Jonathan Quartey
• Masseur – Ishmael Sackey
• Nutritionist – Justine Sitsofe Dzadzetor
The first task for the association in 2010 was how to raise a formidable national team to represent Ghana at the international and continental championships and games knowing very well that the current athletes at the time were very few. Aziz Zakari, Ignatius, Margaret, and Vida Anim were the only known athletes abroad who were representing Ghana at all competitions. At the local front, the
fastest at that time was Ciril Ferguson with a personal best time of 10.6 seconds while Aziz Zakaria was making 10.2. There was no female local athlete close to Vida Anim and Margaret in terms of performance. The future of Ghana Athletics as of 2010 was not looking good.
In other to arrest such a gloomy situation the association first sponsored some athletes on a six-week training tour in Finland. Janet Amponsah, Georgina Sowah, Dorcas Gyimah Appiah Kubi Martin Atse were some of the athletes who were sent to Finland for competitions and training. The result of this Finland camping was not what the Association expected. The second thing the association
did to turn the tide was to camp the athletes in Ghana. So, the association camped about 48 athletes in Accra for six months which was very successful.
Through this Accra camping, athletes like John Ampomah, Isaac Nkansah (long jump), Janet Amponsah, Elizabeth Dadzie, Adelaide Nkrumah, Atsu Nyamadi were all discovered. These athletes went on to become national champions and record
holders. John Ampomah held a national javelin record of 82 metres, Janet Amponsah held a 200m national record. Another conscious effort by the
association in 2011/12 to turn the tide of athletes in Ghana was to organize an international championship in Kumasi.
The association came out with another brilliant event called Ghana Prix in 2011 and got companies like RLG, Tullow Ghana, Unibank, and other corporate companies in Ghana to sponsor the first-ever international Grand Prix in Ghana with almost $120,000.00. Athletes from
Jamaica, South Africa, France, the USA, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso participated in the 2011 Grand Prix. At the end of the competition, I.A.A.F
RATED the competition as silver-level competition. Ghana 4x100m relay men’s team (Aziz Zakaria Team Abayie, Ashadd Agyapong, and Appiah Kubi) qualified to represent Ghana at the 2011 world championships in Daegu South Korea, again in this same competition, a Nigerian 200m athlete also qualified for London 2012 Olympic games. In 2012, during the 2nd edition of the Ghana Grand Prix, the association had a sponsorship of $150,000 from Tullow and rlg. And was able to buy a grand prix elite finish lynx electronic timing system costing $90.000 which we are still using up to date. Another program that was deliberately conceived was the idea of sending our potential good athletes to colleges in the USA on student-athlete scholarships for them to continue with their academic and sporting careers in better environments.
The rationale for sending these young but good athletes to colleges in the USA was (1) to get them to have many competitions. (2) to get them to have training facilities, (3)to get them to have good coaching, and above all to get them to have a good education, This was another way of guaranteeing a good future career after sports. The first batch of athletes that the GA secured scholarships for were John Ampomah, Elizabeth, Atsu Nyamadi (Decathlon), and Doreen Agyei 100/200m.
Today John is doing his Ph.D. at Middle Tennessee State University, and Atsu is now a full-time coach at his university. The second batch of the association secured scholarships to the USA 12 athletes in 2012. The trend continued somewhere in 2017 when the association sent almost 80 student-athletes to the USA on student athletics scholarship which was valued at up to $1.5 million. It must be noted that the first batch of three (3) athletes was fully sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Sports under DR. Omani Boaman with an amount of $9,000 (3,000 each) and the second batch, the association sought sponsorship for them through corporate Ghana and private individual contributions.
The selection of athletes was based on two things, good performance and good academic records. This policy was so successful to the extent that every college and university in the US was chasing for Ghanaian athletes. The Ghana athletes were in high demand amongst the US colleges and Division II universities. It came to an extent that even athletes could recommend their fellow athletes in
Ghana to colleges and division two universities in US for scholarships.
E.g. Daniel Gyabi- Abraham Seneke- Azamati- Elorm- Issack Botsio and James Dadzie, Robert Owuonfuor to Barnabas Agerh. Hence, the association created a conducive environment for Ghana athletes and coaches in the US to recommend
their colleagues in Ghana to coaches and schools in the US for scholarships. The association has shifted its focus to building a formidable national team. Upon creating the enabling environment for all our coaches, athletes, and athletes-related persons to recommend their fellow athletes to coaches in the U.S colleges.
The scholarships can attest to the fact that this particular policy was and still is good. What I can guarantee Ghanaians and the general public is that GA will not sit for some individuals with their over zeal ambition to spoil the policy of sending Ghanaian student-athletes on scholarship to U.S by sending underserved athletes
whose performance is not up to that level to maintain the need for Ghanaian
athlete for future genuine athletes to benefit from this policy.
The Prof. Dodoo administration then came out with yet another brilliant program to cater for those athletes who could not benefit from the U.S college scholarship scheme. The national circuit championship was fashioned out where athletes in
Ghana will compete in multiple events in a season to build up points for the final circuit championship. At the final circuit championship, the athletes who build up more points (cumulative) was given a prize. In a season 7-8 local competitions were organized independently from the National Sports Authority (NSA) and We however tried extremely hard to overcome and pledge that never again should we suffer like bad public radicle again. Colleagues and media personnel here gathered.
Let me not hesitate to state that GA will not allow such a situation to happen again. Anyone who unduly tries to tannish the association or try to be impure on the integrity and reputation of the association will be met with the full power and authority of GA. I will add that a few individuals are currently facing legal cases for their wrong statements against the GA. Colleague media personnel were gathered.
Despite all these challenges and bad comments by certain individuals, Ghana Athletics has seen remarkable improvements in a couple of years now. Since 2018, the performance of our athletes both at home and abroad has seen a remarkable improvement leading to multiple new national records being set. Men 100m and men 200m, women high jump and long jump have new records now.
For the first time in the history of Ghana athletics, an athlete ran under 20 sec in the men’s 200m (James Dadzie 19.79), Azamati clocked 9.90sec in men’s 100m, Deborah Aquah women’s long jump (6.94m) and 4x100m 38.07sec and fifth fastest relay team in the world in 2022.
The resounding performance by Ghanaian athletes in recent times is not only in the sprints or among foreign-based athletes. The field events too have seen a dramatic improvement in terms of performance, high jump, and long jump are the main two events worth mentioning.
The Ghanaian-based athletes are also doing tremendously well. Two athletes clocked 45sec in the men’s 400m, (Raymond French and Solomon Diafo) the last time Ghana had such a performance was in 1993 by Ibrahim Hassan in Kumasi. For the first time in the history of Ghana athletics in one season, we have 5 of our top sprinters doing sub 10:10 in the men’s 100m. Ghana is gradually growing to the level of U.S and Jamaica where they have multiple athletes qualifying for international championships in 100m which Ghana had never had before. All the time we always have one top-notch athlete to qualify for the Olympic games or world championships.
This is an indication that Ghana athletics is getting to an appreciable level in the world. All these positive growths in the performance of Ghanaian athletes both at home and abroad do not come by accident but through good and proper planning over a decade by the local coaches and G A. For instance, GA introduced qualifying standards every year for athletes in Ghana so that the athletes know in advance what distance they need to throw in each of the field events to qualify for every major competition like African championships and African games and time to run to qualify.
This policy makes G.A. selection very transparent and everybody appreciates that. Ghana Athletics in the next couple of years would like to achieve the following feats.To have multiple athletes running sub 10sec in men 100m and sub 20 sec in men 200m. sub 44sec in men 400m, getting field event to the level of more than 8m in long jump, 2.2m in high jump beyond 80m javelin. Likewise in the women’s events in the same events, 100m, 200m,400 long jump, high jump to the level of them getting medals at continental and global levels.
We are not going to spread ourselves too wide to end up accomplishing little to nothing. That is why we will restrict ourselves to a few events where Ghana has a major comparative advantage as compared to other events. In so doing, we are assured that together with our limited financial resources we can make maximum benefit or impact at the continental and global levels. Our intention and vision are to win a global medal either at the Olympics or world championships within the next four years.
In terms of local recruitment into the national team, we shall vigorously pursue a local Ghanaian base approach to harness the local talent into international superstars by doing the following; Pursuing serious school sports through partnerships with G.E.S Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the National Sports Authority. This will enable us to convey student-athletes into the national arena where we can select the best-talented student-athletes among the student-athletes. This will also allow us to monitor student athletes throughout their stay in school to measure their progress in athletics. We have no doubt that this will brings out a lot of hidden talents in our education system which has not been taped. For those talented athletes who are not in the education system will not be left out. We shall improve upon our traditional national circuit championships in terms of numbers and scope. The number shall be increased to 5 per season and instead of 10 events, we will do 13 events.
This we believe will help the athlete sgreatly to improve upon their performances in terms of time, distance, and height.
We shall increase our collaboration with SESSA by way of training their coaches, and their technical personnel to help them build their capacities to the appreciable level. I do know that the Ghana Armed Forces have already trained some of their technical personnel and they are always part of our technical staff in our competitions.
That is one of the reasons why G.A.F is dominating in our events in recent times.
They also have dedicated leaders who always make sure that the army athletes participate in local and international competitions. We can only encourage the Ghana army to do more and highly recommend other sister security services to do the same like G.A.F, Ghana police, Ghana prisons service, customs, Immigration, and fire service please do not sit on the fence, come out and also be participants. I know you can do it; Ghana athletics will greatly benefit and Ghana will get more talented athletes.
FOREIGN BASED COACHES
• Andrew Owusu – United States
• Christian Kojo Nsiah – United States
• Leonard Miles Mills – United States
• Harry Mfur – Germany
• John Ampomah _ United States
• Ignisious Gaisah – Netherlands
• Dwumfour Robert – United States
• Emmanuel Dasor – United States
• Atsu Nyamadi – United States
• Eric Nkansah – United States
We have 33 registered athletics clubs;
(1) Ashanti Region – 9 clubs
(2) Bono East – 6 clubs
(3) Central Region – 17 clubs
(4) Greater Accra – 1 club
G A has trained more than 150 coaches across the country and trained 50 international technical officials to the level that they can officiate at the continental level. Within the next weeks in preparation for the African games, G A will train ITOs for the African games. We will also organize two competitions before the African Games.
One local competition and another international competition to test our new first-class Mondo track with a grand prix timing system. Our athletes both at home and abroad are preparing for the games, however, that is not to say that we will not need financial support from the Ministry, we will definitely need some financial support. We have submitted our blueprints to the sector minister for his perusal.
Before I end my speech, I would like to honestly thank our Ghana coaches for their hard and dedicated job of bringing these athletes up with their resources. Please coaches we see all your efforts and do appreciate your good work.
• GOD BLESS OUR COACHES.
• GOD BLESS OUR ITOS.
• GOD BLESS OUR EXCO
• GOD BLESS THE MINISTRY
• GOD BLESS THE NSA
• GOD BLESS GHANA ATHLETICS
