Athletics need assistance to fulfill potential - Amonoo

Mr Albert Amonoo, a former national athlete has appealed to all who have sports at heart to help in whatever way to enable Ghana athletics fulfill it's huge potential.

In an interview with the GNA Sports in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Amonoo who currently manages some Ghanaian athletes in Germany said apart from infrastructural deficiencies "that our athletes have to grapple with, there are some basic incentives which when given can motivate them to give off their best".

He said managing athletes has not been an easy task, as he has to grapple with their feeding, medical and training expense, which comes at a great cost.

Mr Amonoo said he decided to subject himself to all these since he does not want up and coming young athletes to fade out into oblivion. Amonoo was the former national 800 metres champion and also the junior champion in West Africa. At the age of 17 he was the fastest junior runner at his distance on the continent.

He said this was the driving force that led him to pick Akosah Serwah after witnessing her exploits at an inter-schools games to Germany for her talent to be properly harnessed.

Mr Amonoo's association with the athlete has started yielding some positives results as within two years; he has guided the meteoric rise of Akosuah Serwah from a relative unknown athlete to a silver medal position in the All African Games recently held in Abuja.

He said he believes Akosuah Serwah could have done better in Abuja if he had been there with her to strategize before the final race, but he said he could not attend due to some misunderstanding with Dr Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah, the former boss of the National Sports Council. Akosua Serwah is the current Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) discovery of the year and has already broken the national record thrice with the most recent one coming at the World Athletics Championship held in Paris last year.

Mr Amonoo said there are many more Akosua's in Ghana and with a little effort and dedication they can be unearthed to continue lifting up the flag of Ghana in the international athletics arena. He said he currently needs Millicent Boadi, another Ghanaian athlete to partner Akosah Serwah in training to help put her in shape before the Olympics.