There is no doubt about the fact that Sports is one of the main aspect that has caused the name of Ghana to ring a bell and the minds of many across the globe.Ghana has remained one of the effective sporting nations if not the best in the World.Yes!sports such as Football,Boxing and Athletics has really marketed Ghana very well.Ghana, i must say has really excelled in these three main sports over the last decades.
In terms of Athletics names such as Leo Miles Mills,Rose Heart,Eric Nkansah,Aziz Zakari,Vida Anim,Margret Simpson just to mention a few rings the bell in the ears of many Ghanaians.In the field of boxing,names such as the good old DK poison who won Ghana's first ever title at the world stage,Lengendry Azumah Nelson,Ike Cottey,and just recently Joseph Abgeko and Joshua Clottey also comes to mind.Football on the other hand has countless stars that Ghana can boast of.The likes of Abedi Pele,Osei Kofi,Ck Akonnor,Samuel Kuffour,Stephen Appiah etc can also be mentioned.All these great Sports personalities have really chalked great success for Ghana.
From hear,I have been trying to recall some of the names that were well reconed in other sports such as basketball,volleyball,badmitting,hockey,tennis etc and non seem to ring a bell in my ears.
Why is it so?well!!the simple answer to me is just because these sports mentioned above are not given the needed attention.Sport Authorities in Ghana seems to pay more attention to football,Athletics and Boxing leaving out the other sports.This in my opinion has made it very difficult for Ghana to make a mark whenever we go out to participate in such competitions.
Lets take the Olympic games for example.I cannot recall the last time Ghana took an athlete to participate in an event such as swimming not to talk of other sports.It seem we always go to participate in Football,Athletics and Boxing and to me these three sports only cannot hold Ghana sports as a whole.We cannot affored to put our eggs in one basket.
Just recently,the Ghana female hockey team went to participate at the World hockey championship in Germany where Ghana performed very woefully,finishing 16th out of 16 teams.This to me does not speak well of Ghana hockey and Ghana sports as a whole.
How can we win more medals at the Olympics when we go out to participate in only three disciplines.Countries such as China,the USA,Russia etc participate in almost all the disciplines at the Olympic games.No wonder they turn out writing their names in the Golden books.The saddest aspect is that the three sports we claim to have majored in nowadays do not even yield any results.The blackstars for the past 32years have never won any trophy.Our boxers are nowadays loosing out world tiltles not to talk of our Athletes who fail to make a mark at international competitions such as the Olympic games
Former Ghana weight lifter now coach of the Ghana weight lifting team Margiti Fetiri was able to win Gold in the 2006 Commonwealth games,Alberta Ampomah also won bronze at the London Olympic games.How many Ghanaians are even aware weightlifting is a sports in the country.South Africa,our fellow African nation are always seen on the medal table in international competition winning more medals,not in Football,Athletics or Boxing.But in other disciplines like swimming,hockey,volleyball etc.
Many of these lessor known Sports are even the ones raising the name of Ghana on the international map.Just recently,the Ghana weight lifting team were able to win 19 medals at the African weight lifting championship in Morocco.The national table tennis team,the black loopers outplayed all in Benin when they won the African table tennis federation zone III Championships,winning three Gold and a silver three months ago.
Furthermore,the national beach hand ball team also won an invitational tournment in Lome(Togo) some few months ago.Not forgetting the senior national badmitting team who also raised the national flag high in Mauritius at the senior African Championships in August this year.
The so-called-lessor known sports or want of a better name less financed Sports have achieved a measure of success in recent times.With a little or no funds at all at their disposal as compared to some sporting disciplines in the country,these national teams still excelled and made Ghana proud.Their impressive cuttings are enough signals of what they can achieve on big international platforms given the neccessary push.
GOD SAVE GHANA SPORTS.
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