Ms Yuriya Teragaki, the First Secretary for Public Relations and Culture Affairs at the Japan Embassy has encouraged girls in baseball to look beyond the present conditions and aim at playing at the highest level.
“If you show a high level of determination and seriousness in the game, you can play at the highest level; at the colleges and other levels in Japan and other places where girls and women are allowed to play baseball.”
Ms Teregaki, who represented the Ambassador of Japan, Mr Mochizuki Hisanobu, said this at the 2022 end-of-year baseball competition organised by the Greater Accra Baseball and Softball Association (GRABSA) in Tema.
The competition was played at the Tema Sports Stadium in collaboration with the National Sports Authority (NSA) and under the theme ‘Together we can’.
Ms Teragaki said children’s involvement in sports was a way of enhancing their physical and psychological growth.
“Through these activities, some develop the passion and make it their profession through which they earn a living.”
She urged the young girls not to lose hope in the game and recounted the few times she had gone to the stadium with the father in Japan to watch a softball game.
Ms Teregaki stated that Japan has supported many initiatives in sports including baseball development in Ghana.
The Deputy Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Greater Accra Secretariat, Mr Ignatius Elletey, commended the Greater Accra regional baseball secretariat for opening up to accommodate female athletes.
Mr Elletey said sports in this age and time has no boundary and was important all players were given the same platform to compete and excel.
“Grassroot development has no barrier; males and females have equal opportunities to grow if there are identified and nurtured together” he said.
Mr Yoshinori Wada, a Volunteer Coordinator at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Ghana, Mr David A. Copperfield, the Metro Sports Director for Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) and other dignitaries were present to grace the occasion
The Chairman of GRABSA, Mr Hugo Banzini, said the game has been in the region for a long time but lacks the necessary corporate and individual support.
Mr Banzini said the association had plans of developing and spreading the game in the public schools and communities where there are female athletes.
BY VICTOR A. BUXTON
