Head coach of the local Black Stars, Maxwell Konadu, is expected back in Ghana today to put finishing touches to the team’s preparations for their upcoming 2016 Championship of African Nations (CHAN) final qualifying round first—leg tie against Cote d’Ivoire at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.

Konadu, who also doubles as the assistant coach of the Black Stars, is currently in Washington where he was on the bench with his boss Avram Grant for Ghana’s international friendly with Canada at the RFK Stadium last tuesday night but will take charge of the CHAN team when they play host to their Ivorian counterparts on Sunday.

This year’s Teshie District Presby Men’s Fellowship games comes off at the Teshie Camp 2 School ground on Saturday, October 17, from 8 a.m.

Groups taking part in the one day games are Peniel (Salem) Presby Men’s Followship, Aboma Presby Men’s Fellowship, Tsui-Bleoo Presby Men’s Fellowship, Nii Jorn Presby

The incumbent captain of the Accra Polo Club, Mr Kwakye Dopoah-Dei, has been re-elected for the 2015/2016 polo season at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on October 3.

The victory makes the president of the Ghana Real Estate Development Association (GREDA) an elected captain of the club for the fifth consecutive time.

Other members of the new executive committee are Wassem Helwani, Ricky Khubchandani, Justin Butah and George Agyemang.

The meeting discussed the development of polo and how to get the youth to take to the sport.

Members also deliberated on ways to reach out to corporate institutions for sponsorship of their programmes.

The new polo season took off last month with Ghana beating India to lift the Nkrumah-Nehru Cup at the Accra Polo Grounds.

Engineering and Construction firm, Taysec Group of Companies has pledged to sponsor cricket competitions in different age groups across the country to make the sport more appealing to the youth.

A former national athlete, Professor Charles Yendork, has instituted the first private athletics academy at Lashibi to train athletes for future national and international competitions.

He says he believes the new academy would help the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) to select the best Ghanaian athletes who have been denied the opportunity to showcase their talent.

The former Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) chairman, George Lutterodt, says in spite of the vitriolic attacks on his personality and the ugly noises from the GAA, he still stands by his criticism of the GAA leadership for failing to win gold in any major competition after six years at the helm of affairs.

According to him, the leadership of the GAA had not displayed the requisite qualities that can transform our athletes into winsome side in major tournaments since they took over.

The national male and female hockey teams are set to participate in an Olympic Games qualifying  tournament  scheduled for Johannesburg,­ South Africa this month from the 23rd to 30th.

While the male team will fly to Johannesburg on Saturday, their female counterparts will leave the following day to enable them acclimatise in the city and get accustomed to the pitch before the tournament gets underway.

Beside the host country, Ghana will meet formidable teams from Egypt, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Kenya, as well as Zambia and Nigeria.

Days after the President ordered the immediate payment of $5,000 each to the Black Queens, who won gold at the All Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo, the only other team which won gold medal at the event, the Golden Rackets, are also demanding their pound of flesh.

They are appealing to the President, John Dramani Mahama, to step in and help them retrieve an additional $5,000 due them for winning gold for the country in Brazzaville last month.

Ghanaian football legend, Reverend Osei Kofi, says he "wholeheartedly" supported the decision of the Black Stars to demand their bonuses before playing Portugal in the 2014 FIFA World Cup because the nation has persistently failed to honour promises made to the various national teams.

Rev Osei Kofi in an interview with the Graphic Sports last Friday at the launch of the golden jubilee celebrations of Ghana's triumph in the 1965 African Cup of Nations in Accra, lamented how the promise of houses made by Dr Kwame Nkrumah to each member of the victorious 18-man 1965 AFCON squad remained unfulfilled 50 years after he and his teammates defended the AFCON trophy in Tunisia.

Over 2,000 amateur cyclists thronged the Jubilee Park in Tamale to participate in the 20-kilometre Cowbell Bicycle Caravan aimed at promoting safe cycling in the Northern Region.

The race brought activities in the city to a standstill with no vehicular traffic in sight during the period.

After a ride of over two hours across various suburbs in Tamale, the participants, who included men, women and children from all backgrounds converged on their start-off point at the Jubilee Park for a raffle draw, which saw over 20 riders walking away with Cowbell-branded bicycles and products.

After what appeared as successful Regional Football Association (RFA) elections across the country, the Central Regional polls could be thrown out of gear as a legal battle looms over the election of Roy Arthur as the Central Regional FA chairman.

Mr M.N.S. Doe, the defeated regional chairman, has carried out a threat to file a writ at a Cape Coast High Court seeking the annulment of the regional elections.

Mr Doe, who declined to give further details of the lawsuit, could only say that “Roy Arthur is not qualified”.

The Past Athletes Association of Ghana (PAAG) is a key stakeholder in the development of the sport in Ghana and has followed athletics in the country since its inception.

We at PAAG, for obvious reasons, want to see objective and constructive critiques of athletics in Ghana.

One of our main goals is to help athletics in Ghana develop by working with the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), the only governing body at our disposal for this cause.

Ghana's Black Stars tied the Canucks of Canada 1-1 in Washington at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in a friendly Wednesday morning.

M. de Jong scored Canada’s only goal in the 29th minute. Ghana tied the game in the 44th through Albert Adoma. No goals were scored in the second half.

The Greater Accra Regional Football Association (GARFA) and the Volta Regional Football Association (VRFA) chairmen, Nii Komiete Doku and Francis Dogbatse, yesterday retained their positions after winning their respective elections in Accra and Ho.

Nii Doku secured 72 votes to ensure a landslide victory over young Eugene Jacquaye who bagged 17 votes in a suspense-filled poll.

Black Stars coach, Avram Grant, will have the opportunity to run the rule over his new-look side when he leads a make-shift Ghana side into battle tonight at 11.30 p.m. (Ghana time) against Canada at the RFK Stadium in Washington DC, USA.

Grant waited till last Saturday to release his 19-man squad which has been bedevilled with injury withdrawals and visa issues, resulting in the debut call-ups of four players — Lloyd Ekow Sam (New York Red Bulls, USA), Kwadwo Poku (New York City FC, USA), Gideon Baah (HJK Helsinki, Finland) and Phil Ofosu-Ayeh (Eintracht Braunschweig, Germany).

The quartet will be eager to impress Grant against The Canucks of Canada in the hope of more future call-ups, especially in the absence of regulars such as skipper Asamoah Gyan, Baba Rahman and CAF Player of the Year nominees, Christian Atsu and Andre Dede Ayew.