12 Athletes get scholarships

Twelve Ghanaian athletes have received scholarships worth $200,000 from the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) Olympic Solidarity Movement as part of efforts to assist them to qualify for next year’s summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Each scholarship provides a combination of financial support towards travel, medical bills, lodging facilities and equipment in addition to access to specialist coaches.

The beneficiaries of the scholarship include Commonwealth Games judo and boxing bronze medallists Razak Mumuni and Abdul Wahid Omar; the athletics quartet of Flings, Joyner Owusu-Agyapong, Mathilde Boateng, Robert Martey and Tim Abeyie.

Others are judoka Sandra Szogedi, badminton player Daniel Sam, amateur boxing duo of Sulemanu Tetteh and Jesse Lartey, David Konney Adjetey and Terrence Tetteh Asare. 

 At a media briefing yesterday, GOC president Prof. Francis Dodoo explained that the athletes were selected through a transparent process which involved nominations by their federations before the names were submitted to the Olympic Solidarity Movement for consideration.

"In the past, the nation had at most four athletes all from athletics, but this year we have 12 individuals from five different associations [sports] benefiting from the scholarships,” said the GOC boss, who stressed that the scholarship was to aid the athletes and not a replacement of government support.