National wheelchair team to miss Paralympics?

Lack of financial support that has become the bane of the lesser sports in the country is likely to hit Ghana's wheelchair racing team to deny them the opportunity to participate in  next year's Paralympic Games.

The team should have been in Doha by now to acclimatise and participate in the Paralympic qualifiers which kick-start on Wednesday, October 21.

Sadly, however, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Sports Authority are yet to foot their bill to enable them to fly out to participate in the qualifiers.

Expressing concern about their predicament during an interview with Graphic Sports, All African Games silver medallist, Botsyo Nkegbe, said all the effort during their training period might be wasted.

Unable to hide his frustrations, he questioned: "Can we ever say we don’t have money, so the Black Stars should not play World Cup qualifying matches? For how long can we continue to deliver this kind of unfortunate news to the up and- coming athletes?

According to Botsyo, they were being treated unfairly because they belonged to the lesser-known sports.

He said the continuous neglect of the so-called lesser sports had the potential of demoralising future athletes who might be interested in the sport.

He said he was also disappointed in the National Paralympic Committee and the Association for Disabled Sports for their failure to assist the team to secure the needed funds to participate in the qualifiers.

Wheelchair racing was among the few sports that won medals for Ghana during the All Africa Games held in Congo Brazzaville.