Ghana targets 5th at 2023 African Games
The Executive Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2023 African Games, Dr Kwaku Ofosu-Asare, says his outfit plans to engage federation heads on the need to work harder to win more medals for Team Ghana as hosts.
Dr Ofosu-Asare said it was in the LOC’s interest to ensure that Ghana would win more medals on home soil to achieve the target of finishing fifth on the medal table.
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Accra is expected to host the rest of Africa in the continent’s biggest multi-sport competition as athletes converge on Ghana to slug it out for honours in August next year.
In an interview with Graphic Sports, the leader of Ghana’s LOC for the Games explained that his outfit was looking at ways to focus on specific disciplines which they believed were capable of winning Ghana more medals.
“Our mandate is to ensure we organise a successful competition and not to meddle in the affairs of the various federations, but we also have an interest to ensure we perform better at the games. We promised the President that we will work harder to improve upon our previous 15th position to at least fifth and we believe it is achievable,” Dr Ofosu-Asare said.
“To achieve our targets, we are working closely with all the federation heads to see how best we can achieve that and it is obvious there are specific disciplines we should be looking at,” he said.
Boxing and athletics have continuously proved to be the nation’s most reliable sporting disciplines in international competitions by winning medals for the state.
At the recent Commonwealth Games, the five medals won by Ghana came from the two disciplines, with boxing winning three and two coming from athletics.
Dr Ofosu-Asare explained the importance of having the best of preparations ahead of competitions, saying “it must be the target when the nation hosts the African Games.”
“It is also important that we take keen interest in disciplines such as boxing and athletics and find ways to ensure we win more medals there because they have proved to be reliable,” he stressed.