LOC to intervene for foreign-based athletes—Dr Ofosu-Asare
The Executive Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the 2023 Africa Games, Dr Kwaku Ofosu-Asare, says they are ready to intervene for athletes schooling outside who will be affected by the change of date for the Accra 2023 Games.
Advertisement
The Games originally scheduled for August, this year, had to be postponed due to an impasse between the African Union (AU), the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC).
The new date of March 8, next year, could however coincide with some international competitions such as the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham and the US collegiate athletics season involving Ghanaian athletes and other national from Africa.
But Dr Ofosu-Asare said there was always a way out and even if it had to take his outfit to intervene, they were ready to do so in order to ensure the athletes got the opportunity to be part of the Games in Accra next year.
Making reference to the Commonwealth Games which was hosted by Gold Coast in Australia in 2018, the executive chairman said that wasn’t the first time games were organised in March but said they were ready to intervene for the affected athletes.
“I’ll say that the Gold Coast competition in Australia, for instance, was held in March so now that we have a year ahead, it’s a matter of negotiating.
The concerns raised the other time was about our athletes who are schooling and have scholarship in the US and would be running in the indoor and collegiate competitions.
“So with a year, we’ll find a way of negotiating or making the schools aware and the athletes will also be planning their time around this knowing that they have this major competition. I think that it’s something they can plan.
“We will also intervene if the need be to make them aware so that this is factored into their calendar”, he stated.
