Wa posts impressive performances • at athletics champships
The Ghana Athletics Association’s maiden regional athletics championship got off to a successful start in the Upper West regional capital, Wa, where 186 young athletes competed for honours in boys’ 100 metres, 200m, 400m, 1,500m; 5,000m; long jump, discuss and shot putt, while the girls competed in 200m, 800m, 3,000m; triple jump, high jump and javelin.
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Sakat Lariba emerged winner of the girls’ 3000 metres race in a time of 11:10:37 minutes, followed by Elizabeth Azure (11:17:54 min) and Gloria Boakye (11:47:23 min) respectively.
Ralio Derzu ran an impressive time of 4:15:86 minutes to win the boys’ 1,500 metres race, followed in second place by Bright Gyamfi Attah (4:16:05 min) and Julius Bodi Nyerere (4: 16:49 min).
In the girls 800 metres, Salomey Agyei made good her promise to the crowd by winning the race in 2:19:49 minutes, beating closest challenger Joycelyn Musah (2:23:53 mins) and third-placed Abigail Teye (2:29:27 min).
Other winners included Yakubu Alhassan, who clocked 16:27:09 minutes to win the boys 5,000 metres ahead of Eliasu Alale (16:30:62 mins) and Akakiya Atempure (16:32:39 mins) respectively.
Ghana athletics chief, Prof. Francis Dodoo, announced at the closing ceremony that the Sekondi Stadium at Essipon would host the next leg of the series before it moves to Ho in the Volta Region and ends at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra in June.
He said participating athletes would accumulate points from each competition with a goal of making it into the top eight ranked athletes. Athletes with the highest accumulated points would receive cash awards and stand to be selected to form the national team for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Closing the event, the Upper West Deputy Regional Minister, Abu Kabiebata Kansangbata, commended the athletics governing body for selecting the region to host the maiden event as well as bringing it to their door-step to assist athletes to be groomed for future competitions.
He appealed to the various District Assemblies to explore ways of investing in identifiable sporting disciplines to unearth talents to be groomed for national and international events as such an initiative had the potential of not only bringing fame but also generating revenue for the nation.