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

The Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) has in solidarity with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) begun a one week Level 1 Technical Course for Badminton Coaches across the country at the GHAPOHA Sports Complex at Tema.

The course, which started on last Thursday, October 8 and expected to end on Thursday, October 15, is GOC's third after organising one for taekwondo and volleyball earlier this year.

Addressing the media at the launch, the president of the Badminton Association of Ghana (BAG), Nestor Ghalley, noted that the course would go a long way to help in the development of the sport in the country.

"This course will help develop badminton in the country since this represents a good beginning for the sport," he said.

Rev. Richmond Quarshie, who represented the GOC, emphasised on the need for fair treatment of all sporting federations and said the course would improve the participants know-how.

However, the course expert, A

Vision F/C booked their ticket to the Middle League when they beat arch rivals, Medina Miracle, 2-1 in a play-off of their Zone 4 of the Greater Accra Division Two at the Tema Sports Stadium last Saturday.

Youngster Michael Baidoo, opened the scores with a classic thunderbolt in the 12th minute, after a solo run.

Elite sportsmen and women are usually not considered among the smartest of investors of their fortune in Africa. However, long distance legend, Haile Gebrselassie, believes that  perception, arising from experiences of the past, could be banished soon as successful sports stars of today have what it takes to make a big economic impact in their societies.

Consequently, he has challenged African sports stars, who have made a fortune to re-invest their wealth in Africa instead of indulging in lavish lifestyles which do not last.

The Ethics Committee of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has demoted two Division One League (DOL) clubs, Techiman City and Wa African United, to Division Two for conniving to fix a league match in the ongoing Zone 1 league.

The committee found the two clubs guilty of engaging in bribery and match-fixing in contravention of Article 68 (2) of GFA Regulations.

Emmanuel Kwame Dickson from Cantonments last Friday defeated Wilfried Romeo to be crowned this year's "Red Bull King of the Rock" at the Lebanon House in Accra.

Dickson beat Romeo 15-13 in a close final which saw both athletes showcasing their one-on-one prowess in the national finals.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic after the contest, Dickson said "I dedicate this win to my family. In one-on-one basketball, it's all about being strategic and that's exactly how I performed".

Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will be aiming to move to the summit of Group B in the ongoing BEIGE Knockout hockey competition when they play Amazing Grace on Saturday at the Theodosia Okoh Stadium.

The game which pits last year's losing finalists in the ladies category, GRA, against Amazing Grace, who finished bottom in this year's Greater Accra Hockey League, is expected to be a one-sided affair, with GRA being the favourites.

A novel Taekwondo competition aimed at encouraging the youth to develop keen interest in the sport has been launched by the Korean Embassy in Accra.

The competition, dubbed “I Love Taekwondo Video Contest” and sponsored by Rana Motors, is expected to attract many taekwondo practitioners and clubs accross the country.

Briefing the Graphic about the event, the Korean Ambassador to Ghana, Lyeo Woon-Ki, said there were 90 taekwondo clubs in Ghana and those clubs were expected to send video clips on their perspective about taekwondo and what the sport meant to them to organisers.