Greater Accra win National Sports Festival

Greater Accra Region emerged as the overall winner at the National Sports Festival which ended in Kumasi yesterday.

The region won most of the indoor games, claiming gold in the men’s and women’s volleyball, taekwondo (men and women) and handball (men and women).

Following in second position was Central Region whose athletes picked up gold in women’s table tennis while the men’s team claimed the bronze medal in the men’s competition, as well as bronze in the men’s tennis.

Hosts, Ashanti Region came overall third after dominating the track and field events with gold in the men’s 800 metres, 400m, 4x400m, while the female athletes made a clean sweep of the 100 metres, 400m, 800m and 4x400m.

It was only in the men’s 100m that the Ashanti Region lost the first position to the Greater Accra Region.

Ashanti Region’s dominance of athletics was spearheaded by Horl Harlutie who emerged the overall best athlete for winning the 100 metres and 200 metres sprints, and anchored the female quartet to win gold in the 4x400m relay.

For her outstanding performance, Horl was presented with a mobile phone from Fero Phones, one of the sponsors of the week-long festival which returned after a six-year break.

In the women’s football competition, Northern Region brushed aside the stiff opposition from the Greater Accra Region to win gold with a 2-1 victory in the final. The Western Region picked the bronze medal.

Athletes from the 10 geographic regions of Ghana participated in 12 sporting disciplines, including taekwondo, badminton, volleyball, wheelchair basketball.

Next year’s event would be held in the Central Region.