First batch of athletes depart for Commonwealth Games today

The first batch of athletes and officials for the pre-camping period of next month’s Commonwealth Games are set to depart Accra for Gold Coast later today.

The team made up locally based athletes would be accompanied by their coaches and led by some members of the International Games Committee (IGC).

According to The Finder’s sources at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, an orientation seminar was held for the athletes last Saturday at the Accra Sports Stadium.

He said the seminar was to engage the athletes and orient them on their expectations and also advise them on the use of any banned medication in relation to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) policies.

The second and last batch of athletes are also expected to leave on Thursday, March 15, 2018.

Meanwhile, foreign-based athletes would join their colleagues on March 25, 2018, when the games village officially opens.

A total of 72 athletes from 12 sporting disciplines have been lined up to represent Ghana at the Commonwealth Games to be held at Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Out of the 72 athletes, the national female hockey team is the highest with 18 players followed by the national athletics team with 16 athletes made up of eight male and eight female athletes.

According to the breakdown of the team size, the national swimming team would be represented by four athletes made up of two male and two female swimmers.

The shooting team would have one male and one female while badminton would have six players made up of three male and three female players with boxing having seven, made up of six male and a female boxer.



Three male cyclists would represent the country while table tennis would have six made up three male and three female with three male para-athletes and a male para-powerlifter.

The country would have two male para-cyclists and four weightlifters made up of three male and a female lifter.

Per the list, the 72 athletes would be accompanied by a 49-technical team made of 22 coaches for all 12 disciplines, seven medical team, four representatives each from the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) as well as the heads of the 12 sporting disciplines.

The leader of the delegation for Team Ghana is Mohammed Sahnoon, the Chef de Mission for the games and President of the Ghana Cycling Federation (GCF).