‘Lack of facilities killing athletics in Accra’

The annual athletics and football championship dubbed: ‘Sakora Games’ ended last weekend with a call on the Ministry of Youth and Sports to restore the tartan tracks at the Accra Sports Stadium to help promote athletics.

“The absence of the tracks had led to the decline of enthusiasm and the production of athletes in Accra and the only solution was for the government to restore the tracks to help unearth more athletes.”

Mr Felix Timean, United States of America (USA)-based former Ghanaian national 1500 metres star made the call in an interview with the GNA Sports after the games at Teshie Salem Park in Accra.

He said the decline of athletics in Accra could be attributed to the poor performance of schools and clubs that participated in the national games and fail to excel in such competitions.

“It was sad that a competition was organised in Accra and all the medals went to teams from Ashanti and the Northern regions. This should tell you that there was something wrong, which is lack of training facility,” Mr Timean said.

He said: “We have the El-Wak and the Legon tracks but they belong to institutions and would come at a huge cost if we are to organise the event at any of them, so we would need the restoration of the tartan tracks at the Accra Stadium to boost athletics in Ghana”.

Mr Timean said athletics was capable of putting the country on the world stage and that government should turn its attention to it by providing the necessary resources and the facilities as being done for football in the country.

“It was not easy hosting athletic teams from the Ashanti and the Northern Regions who numbered about 140 in hotels in Accra for three days,” he said.

Mr Timean advised the young athletes to keep training hard, adding that success would be theirs in the future because athletics would expose them to opportunities for scholarship and jobs. –GNA