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.

Wave Keep Fit Club won six events to emerge champions of the 10th edition of the Happy FM Keep Fit Festival held last Saturday at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra.

The festival saw a congregation of over 90 keep fit clubs from across the country competing for honours in 10 disciplines.

Wave remained undaunted by the number of challengers throughout the day, winning six trophies, including sack race, 1,500m men’s athletics, 100m women’s athletics and 4x100m women’s athletics.

Marco Reus will not be turning up at Melwood any time soon if new Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp keeps his promises.

The German, who was greeted by frenzy when taking over on Merseyside last week, has vowed not to poach any of his previous players from Borussia Dortmund.

Winger Reus has been linked with a switch to Liverpool in January, while midfielder Ilkay Gundogan is also highly thought of.

The Ghana Navy won in both the male and female cross country race of the Ghana Armed Forces Inter-Service Sports Competition held at El Wak Sports Stadium last Friday.

The theme for the event was “Fostering Unity, Cooperation and Esprit de Corps through Sports”.

The Director of Engineering at Air Force Headquarters, Group Captain Augustine Alfred Appiah, said those who excelled will represent the Ghana Armed Forces in the forthcoming Inter-Service Formation Games.

Some coaches of the National Sports Authority(NSA) are unhappy about the performance of Ghana at the just-ended All Africa Games. 

One of them ,Mr. Albert Nukpezah, who lamented the poor perfomance of the Prof. Francis Dodoo-led administration, blamed the professor for all the challenges that the Ghana Athletics Association(GAA) and the team are facing currently.

For so many good reasons, Ghanaian referees should have no problem or difficulties with and at the GFA. Almost one after another, and over a period, the football authorities have granted the demands of the referees.

Trustees of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust and Extinguishers of the Ghana National Fire Service clinched the respective men's and women's titles in the BEIGE Capital Hockey Knock-Out with slim victories at the Theodosia Okoh Stadium  last Saturday.

In the keenly-contested men's final played under floodlights, a solitary strike by Trustees’ talisman, Johnny Botsio, settled the tie in favour of the defending champions who were 1-0 winners over Exchequers of the Bank of Ghana, while the women's final saw Extinguishers stunning the defending champions 2-1 in a penalty shuffle after their dramatic clash ended 1-1 in normal time.

Trustees qualified for the men's final with a 100 per cent record after beating Ghana Revenue Authority and Goldensticks in the group stages, while their resilient opponents, Exchequers, booked a spot in the final after a win over Reformers and a memorable draw with Police.

Exchequers had shackled Trustees for must parts