Ghana to take part in traditional Wrestling in Niger

Ghana is to take part in a traditional wrestling competition involving all West African countries to be held in Niger from March seven to 10 march this year.

Mr Emmanuel Owusu Ansah, Acting Chief Executive of the National Sports council who disclosed this to the GNA Sports in Accra on Friday said as part of the preparation towards the competition, the Council is going to organize two wrestling events in Nima and Winneba to select representatives for the country.

He said the event are taking place in Nima and Winneba because the game is mostly practiced in the northern part of the country and since Nima residents are mostly northerners it would not be difficult to find suitable candidates while Winneba already had a traditional wrestling competition in place.

Mr Owusu-Ansah said people who excelled in these two events would be brought to Accra for a final selection of those who would represent the country in the West African competition. He said an association is going to be formed latter to over-see effective development and promotion of the sport throughout the country.

He said Ghana is taking part in the competition for the first time in the spirit of solidarity with pioneer countries like Nigeria and Niger saying Ghana's participation in the competition is as a result of a recent meeting of ECOWAS ministers of Youth and Sports in Ouagadougou where they were keen in developing and promoting the sport to its highest level.

Mr Owusu-Ansah said traditional African games existed before the colonialist came to Africa and it was important to preserve them adding, "is dangerous to kill these traditional games which are part and parcel of the life of the African."