Lydia Forson says track & field is Ghana’s gold

Outspoken award winning Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson believes a little more attention to track and field will see Ghana’s image soar across the globe.

According to Ms Forson, despite the enormous talent Ghana has in track and field, the authorities are just not doing enough to motivate both the current and upcoming athletes to lift the image of the nation at world competitions.

In an exclusive interview with TV3, Ms Forson, who was an athlete in school, said minimum attention is being given to track and field in the country and feels it should be addressed with a lot of urgency.

“We are very one sided, always complaining that there are no jobs, the economy is bad and just to take us back a bit people were debating on how much bonus the Black Stars players make.

“I think they really don’t understand how much revenue the country makes for a world cup appearance because it is entertainment as well.

“Nobody is talking about how much money the country makes from sports so we need to develop the whole sports sector especially track and field.

“I was in school with a couple of runners and one of them happens to be Ghanaian sprinter Vida Anim, who always spoke passionately about how she wanted to run for Ghana.

“We have these stadiums and we are not even using the tracks for any major competitions and it’s very worrying,” she said.

She reminisced her days at Akosombo International, where a ‘Mini Olympics’ was held the last Saturday of every month.

“It was fun and brought out some really good talents. “Football and boxing are international sports whether we like it or not but I think the authorities should focus their attention to track and field and go to the secondary schools where they can discover young talents and develop them for the future”.