Handball: Ghana for Africa U-20 tourney

Coach George Bankole,  technical director of the Ghana Handball Association (GHA), is optimistic about his team’s chances in the upcoming Africa U-20 Zone III Youth Challenge tournament to be hosted in Lome from July 28 to August 5.

According to Bankole, the team started preparations last Monday and considering the enthusiasm of the players, he was hopeful his side would emerge victors in the tournament.

“The female team is virtually a new team made up of players selected from the schools and collages but we are trying as much as possible to get them well organized team to put up a great performance at the tournament” he stated.

Bankole tagged their preparations as a dual move simply because immediately after the African U-20 Handball Youth tournament, the same team would be participating at the next ECOWAS games to be staged in Cote d’Ivoire later this year.

However, he expressed dissatisfaction about the delay in the payment of player allowances by the government which he explained was a destructive factor for the team and was not helpful to the motivation of the team.

“For your information the handball team that won gold at the last edition of the ECOWAS games which was hosted in Ghana has still not  been paid their allowances,”  he stated.

The annual competition also serves as an avenue to bring together handball teams from the various West African countries to help develop the sport on the African continent.