GAA Launches C'wealth Games Website

The Ghana Athletes Association has launched a new website http://www.ghanaathletics.freewebspace.com dedicated to the athletics team?s participation at the upcoming 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. Speaking on behalf of the athletes, Professor Francis Dodoo, a one time national star who was the first Ghanaian to triple jump 17 meters, and the current chairman of the Ghana Athletes Association said that he hopes the new website will keep all athletics loving Ghanaians around the world abreast with team happenings during the games.

More importantly, Professor Dodoo stressed, the launching of the website is in line with the current reform efforts spearheaded by athletes, in their effort to breathe new life into Ghana athletics. He said that his fellow athletes are bent on seeing to it that they have as much input as is appropriate in decisions about the direction of the sport. The new website, he said, is direct testimony to the will of the athletes to persevere beyond known and unforeseen obstacles placed in their paths, and serves to show Ghanaians that, ?our commitment to reform is not just verbal but pregnant with positive action.?

Professor Dodoo confirmed the current rumor that the selected foreign based athletes were considering a boycott of the Commonwealth Games, unless the selection criteria were fairly applied to ensure that the best athletes made the team, and the amorphous catch-all criterion of ?indiscipline? that had been used to drop many a Ghanaian athlete who legitimately questioned improper actions of officials in the past, was equally applied to officials. In that regard, the athletes are adamant about excluding the current athletics coach from the team, given his implication in the notorious visa fraud associated with the team?s trip to the World Championships last year. If officials are going to exclude one of Ghana?s current best athletes, Samuel Okantey, for subjectively determined ?indiscipline?, it is difficult to understand why they are adamant in insisting that officials implicated in fraud should travel to represent Ghana. The athletes? position is that it would be extremely unproductive to include a coach who is seen by many of our athletes as a divisive figure who has forwarded many selections in the past, that have not been based on merit. Most recently, beyond the visa scandal, the coach in question spearheaded three different selections in the past three months, none of which was based on pure merit. The athletes? position is that the same ?zero tolerance? stance has to be in effect for officials and athletes alike.

However, professor Dodoo, indicated that the Acting Chief executive of the National Sports Council, Dr. Owusu Ansah is currently working feverishly to resolve this current impasse. As of this interview, professor Dodoo indicated that a meeting was being arranged to get the leading authorities, including the Minster for Youth and Sports, together for an emergency meeting on Tuesday 9th July, 2002.

But with time running out for visa acquisitions for the respective athletes, one can only wonder why it had to come down to the wire after the constant call by the Ghana Athletes Association for selections to be based on merit. Three teams scrapped for not being based on merit, a coach who has failed to stand by his athletes and an Association, the GAAA, from whom the athletes are yet to hear from is not the way we all hoped this will go.

Professor Dodoo, in conclusion, asked Ghanaians and well-wishers from all over the world to remember the athletes in their prayers during the Commonwealth Games. He said, ?we are ensuring that it will be the best team Ghana currently has, ALTHOUGH it is not the best team we could and should have had.? A number of our athletes who were in excellent shape, he explained, quit training after they were excluded from successive selections because they had been dropped by the GAAA. Similarly, even some of the athletes who were later added to the list because of athlete agitation or protest have had to invest considerable amounts of time and psychological energy fighting to be included in the team. Professor Dodoo stressed that ?this is hardly the sort of preparation, mental or physical, that you want athletes to have as they prepare for major competition.? He added that ?these are some of the ways in which inappropriate actions by the national federation have hurt athlete performances in the past and, unfortunately, in the end the athletes always receive the blame for not living up to expectations.? ?The psychological and physical stresses that these patriotic young men and women have had to go thorough just to reach the point we are today have been overwhelming. Let?s not forget that most of these athletes are students who have to juggle school, work, and their sport.

?All Ghanaians should pray that the good Lord grants the selected sportsmen and women, the strength, concentration and determination from here on out, to allow them to perform to the best of their abilities. If even for nothing else, these brave athletes need to be commended for the courage and determination they have exhibited in demanding a say in their fate.?

A feature of the website permits all well-wishers who would like to send the athletes a word of encouragement to do so via the internet address: http://www.ghanaathletics.freewebspace.com/2000cmg_disc2_frm.htm Professor Dodoo thanked the numerous Ghanaians who have sent messages of support to the Ghana Athletes Association, and he encouraged as many people as could to send good tidings to the team, noting that ?I am sure it will mean a lot to them.? In closing, he stated that ?it is my hope that the Ghanaian sports authorities will embrace the efforts and initiative of the athletes and remember that most of them have lives outside of athletics. I hope that these humble efforts will spur the necessary overhaul of our athletics system to the point that no more will Ghanaian athletes feel as if they have to give up their citizenships to compete for other countries. Ghana has lost too many of her best athletes to other countries, because they saw no light at the end of the tunnel. The current crop of athletes has chosen to stay and they certainly deserve better treatment.? He urged all to visit the Commonwealth Games Website: http://www.ghanaathletics.freewebspace.com and the Ghana Athletes Association Home Page: www.ghanaathletics.com