Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, has expressed his gratitude to the Ghana Athletics Federation for being in Accra, Ghana, to witness the 24th African Seniors Athletics Championships, scheduled for May 12th to 17th at the University of Ghana, Legon Sports Stadium.
In an interesting interaction with the media on Tuesday morning at the Lancaster Hotel, Lord Coe expressed his delight at being in Ghana.
He congratulated Bawa Fuseini, President of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), for winning the bid to host the championship and prayed for a successful event.
He noted that it is not easy to organise Athletics events and hoped for a successful championship in Accra.
He was, however, delighted that he held a series of important meetings with the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Executive Council.
He paid compliments to the commitment of the government of Ghana for hosting the championships and urged Athletics stakeholders to support African governments to maintain sustainability.
He charged. African countries to bid for world-class athletics events to develop and promote the sports in their respective countries.
He said Africa must be represented properly with athletes and technical officials.
He stressed that his career was defined by some outstanding African athletes.
He commended the African countries that qualified for the World Relays in Gaborone, including Ghana.
Lord Coe called for the intensified training of Athletics Journalists to enable them to be abreast with modern technologies in information and media.
He reiterated the need to train more female technical personnel and invest in Schools and kids’ athletics programmes.
The press conference attracted the cream of the media houses represented in Ghana Sports
Mr. Bawa Fuseimi thanked the media for promoting the 24th CAA African Athletics Championship.
54 countries are expected to be represented by over 1,000 athletes and officials, the majority of whom have already arrived.
The countries to watch are Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Botswana, Morocco, Algeria, and Ethiopia.
By Sammy Heywood Okine
