Mr Charles Osei Asibey, President of the Armwrestling Federation of Africa (AFA), has marked his first year as the continental head, subtly recounting achievement and a projection for the years to come.
In a statement to mark the occasion, he thanked the member federations for the confidence reposed in him to lead Africa and appreciated the efforts of his staff in the success chalked so far.
“I express gratitude to God, my family, the good friends, leadership of Ghana and Africa armwrestling, the pullers, coaches, referees, member federations, Ghana’s ministries of Youth and Sports and Foreign Affairs, World Armwrestling Federation, Vice President, Kofi Addo-Agyekum, and General Secretary, Julien Boumsong, and others that supported this journey.”
Mr Asibey, who doubles as President of the Ghana Armwrestling Federation (GAF) and General Secretary of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) assured members and partners of his readiness to continue to work harder to make armwrestling an enviable sport of choice in Africa.
Among his achievement were an increase in membership of the continental body, which he alluded to a target to ensure almost all countries on the continent would signed up to become members of the federation.
That also resulted in an improved participation in competitions as the recently held Africa Armwrestling Championship in Ghana saw a record of over 164 athletes battling for continental glory.
Under Mr Asibey’s watch, competitions were created on the continent to give pullers more playing time on the table.
Apart from the annual Africa Championship, new events like the zonal competitions, West Africa Zone Championship and armwrestling into the Arnold Classic Africa were created.
Within that same period, AFA was affiliated to the Association of Africa Sports Confederation (AASC/UCSA), after initial struggles plus a massive television coverage for the Africa championship which was broadcasted live on five traditional televisions, social media, Supersports and the BBC.
Again, Africa has been awarded the hosting rights for the 2024 World Armwrestling Championship, and for the first time armwrestling has been added to the sports code for the Africa Games.
Mr Asibey is currently working to find sponsorship for Africa Armwrestling.
-www.africaarmwrestling.com
