The Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Prof. Peter Twumasi has on behalf of the Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah, launched Ghana’s hosting of the 7th Africa Zone 2 West and Central Africa Swimming Championship.
The event, fixed for March 5-8, will be held at the Trust Emporium (Bukom Boxing Arena) and will serve as a qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Consequently, a nine-member Local Organising Committee (LOC) was inaugurated yesterday tasked with managing respective aspects of the four-day championship which has 22 countries from the Western and Central Africa regions representing, although only 18 had confirmed their participation as of press time yesterday.
The committee is chaired by Sara Asafu-Adjaye and has the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of Accra, Mohammed Adjei Sowah, Dr Owusu Ansah, Delphina Quaye, Helena Williams, Charles Mensah, Eric Kornor and Mohammed M. Kassim as members and Seth Nti as Secretary.
Other sub-committees on Technical, Protocol/Security, Logistics and Transport, Feeding and Accommodation, Finance/Sponsorship/Marketing, Ceremonies, Media and Communication as well as Entries were also inaugurated.
According to Professor Twumasi, hosting such a prestigious swimming championship was a proud moment for Ghana, especially when doubts had been expressed over Ghana’s ability to host the 2023 Africa Games (AG).
He described it as an opportunity for the Ghana Swimming Association (GSA) to show the world what they were doing to develop and promote swimming in the country and informed that the various committees were at advanced stages of their work.
The Vice President of the GSA, Delphina Quaye assured that preparation was advanced and hoped the effort put in by Team Ghana would be enough to win medals and qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) boss, Mohammed Adjei Sowah who doubles as a member of the Greater Accra Swimming Association expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) and the NSA for the support in staging the event.
“The choice of Ghana as the host came at a very short notice and we had to accept based on assurances from the Ministry and NSA. They have done very well but there are still challenges with time and resource mobilisation but we hope to overcome and want to urge corporate bodies to join us.”
BY ANDREW NORTEY
