Athletics Chiefs Bow To NSC Boss?

A familiar tale of selection controversy has again characterised the composition of Ghana’s track and field team for the 8th All African Games in Abuja, Nigeria.

Disagreement over the number of places allocated to home-based athletes and the inclusion or otherwise of Leonard Myles-Mills initially pitted the GAA executives on one side and the National Sports Council (NSC) Chief Executive on the extreme end of the tango. However, a compromise deal was reached before the final squad was unveiled at a press conference yesterday.

Even though the nation’s fastest man has been included in the 14-member team, he has been sacrificed for Germany-based Ernest Osei in the 4x100 metres relay squad.

Investigations conducted by the Graphic Sports indicate that the GAA gave US-based Myles-Mills the chop from the final list but NSC acting Chief Executive, Dr Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah, kicked against the action and included him in the team.

At yesterday’s press conference the officials gave little indication of previous disagreements in the selection process, but the Graphic Sports can confirm that the athletics chiefs, led by GAA Chairman Dr George Lutterodt and national chief coach Mr Steve Atuahene, were uncomfortable with what they described as interference in their work by the NSC boss.

In earlier interviews with this paper, they accused Dr Owusu-Ansah of literally doing the selection of the athletics team, even though other associations have been granted the independence to select their own teams.

Mr Lutterodt had earlier told the Graphic Sports that Myles-Mills had been dropped because his performance fell below expectation.

Thus in the list presented to the NSC boss, Myles-Mills was conspicuously excluded, much to the disagreement of the Dr Owusu-Ansah.

The squad initially selected by the athletics chiefs was: Aziz Zakari, Christian Nsiah, Andrew Owusu, Eric Nkansah, Gad Boakye, Emmanuel Ofori-Asante, Ernest Osei, Vida Anim, Margaret Simpson, Georgina Sowah, Ignasius Gaisah and Akosua Serwaa.

However, Myles-mills’ exclusion from the relay team, which he had anchored in previous international competitions, may not just be a result of poor form.

Inside sources reveal that the athletics chiefs are uncomfortable with the 100m men’s national record holder who is accused of always causing unrest in camp during such international competitions. This, they claim, also played a role in Ghana’s dismal performance in the 4x100m relay at the recent World Athletics Championship in Paris.

Not convinced by the GAA’s stand, and after a number of meetings between the two parties, the NSC boss demanded that Myles-Mills be included in the team, at least to defend the 100m gold he won in Johannesburg in 1999.

The athletics chiefs also bowed to pressure from above which allocated only three places to home-based athletes, Gad Boakye, Emmanuel Ofori-Asante and Georgina Sowah. The association initially wanted a larger representation by the locals who had shown a lot of promise during their training camp.

The final squad as presented yesterday was made up of 10 foreign-based athletes and three home-based athletes. Ghana will also send to athletes to participate in wheel chair events. They are Ajara Bozanga Mohammed and Patrick Yaw Obeng.

Dr Owusu-Ansah yesterday admitted that there had been some trouble among the foreign-based athletes but was confident those issues would be handled managed so that it does not undermine Ghana’s performance.

Mr Rashid Bawa, a Minister of State at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports personally promised to monitor the situation in Abuja and help arrest any trouble that may brew up, especially as the relay team hold a lot of promise for Ghana.

Ghana is banking her hopes on African heptathlon champion Simpson, triple jumper Owusu, World championship finalists Serwaa and Gaisah, long jumper Sowah and the men’s relay team.

In all, Ghana is sending to Abuja a 192-member contingent made up of 143 sportsmen and 48 accompanying officials. This squad include the Black Meteors (soccer), boxing, handball, hockey, handball, karate, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, judo and weightlifting teams.