Kojo Abbiw Jackson: Let’s look at positive side of COVID-19

National swimming coach, Kojo Abbiw Jackson, has advised the sports fraternity to consider the positive aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic and work towards the development of Ghana Sports.

According to him, though COVID-19 had disrupted sporting activities, it also had a positive aspect which people should look out for to see other opportunities of doing things right to help shape sports development.

In an interview with Graphic Sports last Saturday, Mr Jackson said there was always a good thing in anything that happened provided it was looked at positively to help the game.“Whenever there is a challenge, people should also look out for the advantages of the challenge. The COVID-19 has given us another opportunity to look at other ways of training and other ways of doing things right.

“I believe with this pandemic, we must look out for the positive aspect because that’s what will help us to move forward. At the time Abeiku Jackson swam 22.9 secs in the CANA Championship, it was only four months to the Tokyo Olympic Games but we are going to have another year of training; isn’t that positive? It is likely he will do better in subsequent years.

Mr Jackson made reference to the effect of the pandemic on his team when some of his athletes were in their peak form and were eager for Olympic qualification but since March this year, none of his top swimmers had been restricted from training which was terrible.

“Because of COVID-19, the Tokyo Olympic Games has been postponed to next year which will give our athletes a quantum time to prepare themselves to qualify for the Olympics. That is what I’m looking at but not the negative impact.”

“I could have preferred we wouldn’t have had COVID-19 because my team had wonderful plans to meet our target this year but the pandemic has disrupted our plans. Instead of lamenting the fact that we couldn’t go for the competition in Durban as we expected Abeiku to drop further, I will look at the brighter side for the progress of my athletes,” he said.