Athletes Threaten To Boycott African Championships

Some of Ghana?s foreign-based athletes are threatening to boycott the African athletics championships in Congo Brazzaville.

The competition will serve as the selection point for Ghanaian athletes who want to make the Olympic games in August.

But eight of Ghana?s elite athletes including African gold medallists Ignatius Gaisah Andrew Owusu, Christian Nsiah and Leo miles Mills say they will not show up at the games.

And they blame the Ghana athletics Association for their decision.

In their view, the Association has demonstrated a high level of incompetence in the build up to the Olympics.

Andrew Owusu, the chairman of a group of foreign-based athletes called the Ghana Athletes Association contends that the Association two months before the Athens games has not made available to Athletes the selection criteria for the Olympic Games.

Hence athletes do not know what to do to get into Ghana?s Olympic team.

Though the foreign-based athltes have complained endlessly about the unavailability of the selection criteria, the GAA has not been able to set any standards for Ghana?s team.

The foreign-based athletes are also peeved that they have not received any money at all to aid their preparations for the Olympic Games in August.

This is in spite of President Kufuor?s promise that members of Ghana?s athletics contingent to the Olympics will be paid fifty dollars a day beginning in January.

The Ghana Athletics Association issued a communiqu? to the athletes telling them to report to Congo or they will be dropped from the Olympic team.

But the athletes say, that is unfair because they don?t even know how to get to Congo.

No tickets have been advanced to them from their various destinations and they have to pay for their passage.

Retrieving the money from the Ministry for Youth and Sports and the association can take forever.