Lack of competition affected us – NPC boss

Bishop Cornelius Adja-Coffie, President of the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) has attributed Ghana’s failure to win medals in disable sports to inactivity on the part of the athletes.

Ghana was dealt a big blow on Thursday evening when three medal hopefuls in para-sports, Ajara Mohamed, Anita Fordjour and Felix Acheampong performed woefully in the finals of the Men and Women’s 1500m T54 race.

Speaking to the GNA Sports, Bishop Adja-Coffie said, most of the athletes have not been in competition for years and this has been a major cause of poor performance in the competition.

He said they have not been able to compete and prepare adequately because the Committee was under resourced.

“We have always struggled with funding to organise competitions and this has been the bane of disable sports in Ghana,” he stated.

He said though there were several competitions outside the country, they have not been able to compete due to the high cost of registration, airfare, accommodation and other expenses.

Bishop Adja-Coffie called for the need to invest in disable sports because the prospects were high.

He said the Committee will be seeking for sponsorship from the corporate world to embark on talents.

This he said was to unearth more talents for the nation in disable sports and groom them for future competitions.

Disable sports had been one of the gold mines for Ghana at international competitions but the 2014 Commonwealth Games has proven otherwise.

(William D. Ezah, GNA Special Correspondent, Glasgow, Scotland, courtesy GPHA)