Ghana sets modest targets for Rio Games
Ghana’s contingent to this year’s Olympic Games has been handed a modest target by the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) which want to remain cautious in their expectation of the team’s achievement at the Rio Games in Brazil.
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The 16 athletes are scheduled to depart for the competition village next week but the General Secretary of the GOC, Richard Akpokavie, told Graphic Sports in an interview that setting a benchmark would amount to exerting undue pressure on the contingent.
“We don’t want to put pressure on them so we have not set any target for our athletes,” he said, but added that the athletes had trained well and would not let the country down in the various disciplines.
Earlier, Chris Essilfie, Ghana’s Chef de Mission for the Games, admitted on radio that the team had been motivated with a $10,000 reward awaiting any athlete who grabs a gold medal, with silver and bronze attracting $7,000 and $5,000 respectively.
But Mr Akpokavie said the Ministry of Youth and Sports was yet to commit to their financial obligation after the GOC submitted a $600,000 budget it would require to participate in the Games to the ministry.
He was, however, confident that the ministry would meet the obligation before the trip. He noted that GOC did not expect the ministry to foot the entire bill since it was also raising funds to augment whatever would be made available by the ministry.
On the team’s preparation, he said the athletes who are outside the country were doing their bit while those in the country had also trained very well. He was confident everything would go well at the Games.
Mr Akpokavie said the athletes would be accompanied by three medical staff, in addition to a coach each for judo, swimming, boxing, weightlifting , as well as three coaches for athletics.
