Ghana's team of walkers back home

Accra, Aug. 22 GNA,- A team of race walkers drawn from the Visco Walking Club which represented Ghana at the Rotterdam Racewalking competition held in Switzerland, has returned home Two of them - Ahmed Tijani Sanni of the Ghana Armed Forces and Vincent Asumang of the Ghana National Fire Service represented the country.

In their first competition in Switzerland which covered 20km, Sanni placed 13th from a field of 75 walkers from 10 countries. Due to technical reasons, his colleague Asumang, returned home to prepare for the All Africa Games scheduled for Abuja, Nigeria later in October. Asumang had, because of flight delays, missed two crucial competitions in Holland and Belgium. Sanni's time was 1:52:01.

In Rotterdam, Holland the competition covered 30 km and was won by Sanni in a time of 2:41:21:4 well ahead of the first Dutch walker (a former Dutch champion) on 20km and 50km) Petro Huntjens who completed in 2:54:27:2.

In seperate interviews with the two Ghanaian racewalkers, they were full of praise for Hans Van der Knaap for his immeasurable assistance including financial support.

It will be recalled that Mr. Van der Knaap sponsored the ace walker Asumang to participate in competitions in Europe, as part of his preparations towards the Sydney Olympic Games. The executive members of the Visco Walking Club were at the airport to welcome the team back home.