Ghana Athletics President, Prof. Francis Dodoo, has said that it was important to create a very congenial atmosphere for athletes to thrive rather than setting audacious targets for them to achieve.
In his view, when there is enough motivation and the needed incentives are in place, the athletes would naturally excel to make the nation proud.
Prof. Francis Dodoo said this in a media interaction via zoom on Tuesday to discuss Ghana’s athletics preparation and participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
According to Prof. Dodoo, the biggest motivation for an athlete is when he/she was aware of an opportunity to travel for a big international championship after winning a trial.
“We as a federation must ensure that the athletes trust us; make sure the athletes thrive in the system and make sure there are incentives for athletes to perform.
“You need to provide all of these for athletes; nobody is hungrier for success than the athletes for their success. There is no point telling an athlete what he should achieve when they understand themselves very well with what they need to do.”
According to him, these have contributed to the rise in fortunes of athletics in the country with between 70 to 80 per cent of national records been broken in the last decade.
Additionally, he said athletics have gotten better and better with the national relay team also improving tremendously.
He also stressed that the availability of scholarships for athletes have undoubtedly improved athletics as athletes churn out impressive times.
And as a federation, he said it was important to ensure that the motivation and incentives like transparency and fairness in the selection criteria for athletes for games exist, making sure we commit to the standards set for such exercises.
Speaking about Ghana’s preparation, Andrew Owusu, the team’s coordinator expressed satisfaction about how the athletes have conducted themselves in camp and specially commended those that managed to qualify.
He lamented the failure of the female relay squad and Deborah Acquah to qualify for the event, hoping the team in camp will put up an impressive performance to make everybody proud.
Mr. Owusu conceded that qualification standards remain very high and was made even tougher with the breakout of the Covid-19 virus which forced the cancelation of sporting activities.
He hinted of working relations with university coaches of the various athletes in a bid to synchronise the individual programmes of athletes.
Ghana would be represented in athletics (track and field) by Nadia Eke – (Triple Jump), Joseph Paul Amoah – 200m, 4 X 100m relay, Benjamin Kweku Azamati – 100m 4 X 100m relay, Oduro Manu Joseph – 4 X 100m relay, Sean Safo-Antwi Sean – 4 X 100m relay and Yeboah Emmanuel – 4 X 100m relay.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
