GHANA’S quest for improved performance in athletics at next year’s commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, would begin this month when the sport’s governing body begins an intensive training regime for national athletes.

The programme for selection of Ghana’s team for Manchester 2002 runs between October till June, next year, by which time the national athletics chief coach Mr S. S. Atuahene would have picked his squad.

Atuahene, who outlined his calendar to Graphic yesterday, disclosed that selection process would be preceded by a coaches course for about 50 National Sports Council coaches at Winneba, and non-residential course for Regional coaches in Kumasi and Tamale between November 7 and 25, with sponsorship from the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC).

However, the field work begins at the Kumasi Sports Stadium, where a two-week clinic would be organised for selected athletes from the recent Schools and Colleges Championship, at the beginning of December.

While the concentration will be on the local athletes, the Ghana Amateur Athletics Association (GAAA) would closely monitor the performance of the foreign-based athletes before the final selection.

According to Atuahene, in order to forestall the situation where foreign-based athletes mislead national coaches about their performance, a strict monitoring would be done to ensure that selected athletes would have met the qualifying mark at least three times before the games.

Even before the final selection, both home based and their overseas counterparts would undertake final trials either in Kumasi or a chosen venue next May, after which selected athletes would undergo a strict and compulsory fitness test before proceeding to Manchester.