The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Saturday closed the three-week 13th African Games, Accra 2023 at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium with a call on stakeholders to use the sports platform to create a prosperous Ghana for all.
Delivering the keynote address to lower the curtain on the event attended by high profile sports personalities across Africa, President Akufo Addo said, “Together, we can harness the power of sports to build a stronger, healthier and a more prosperous Ghana for generations to come.”
The 13th edition marks Ghana’s most successful participation since the Games’ inception in 1965, surpassing its previous best of 27 medals attained during the 1973 Games in Lagos, Nigeria.
Ghana won a total of 68 medals made up of 19 gold, 29 silver and 20 bronze.
They came from nine disciplines, including armwrestling, which recorded eight gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze, totalling 41 medals; boxing with four gold, one silver and two bronze to make seven medals in all; athletics had three gold, two silver and one bronze, totalling six medals while football had two gold medals won by the Black Satellites and Black Princesses.
In weightlifting, all three medals – a gold and two silver medals were won by Winnifred Ntumi; hockey grabbed a gold and silver each; taekwondo recorded two silver and a bronze; swimming had a silver and bronze and volleyball grabbed a bronze medal.
Boxing restored its pride with Samuel Takyi, Ghana’s sole Olympic medalist in Tokyo, Joseph Commey, a recent Commonwealth Games medalist, Mohammed Aryeetey in Minimum weight 48kg and Amadu Mohammed in bantamweight 54kg mounted the podium for their medals.
One area that pulled the biggest crowd and attention and got rewarded for its resilience was athletics.
Again, Ghana made history by hosting the highest number of disciplines since the start of the Games to finish sixth out of 53 participating nations to mark a significant improvement from her 15th position in the 2019 Rabat edition, where the team returned with 13 medals.
Similarly, Accra 2023 Games hosted three disciplines more than the Rabat event of 26. Until the Rabat event, host countries had been averaging 20 disciplines.
According to the President, as the nation basked in the glory of the success, it was important that stakeholders reaffirm their commitment to the promotion of sports as a tool for national development and unity.
He said the hosting of the Games has left Ghana with state-of-the-art sports facilities that makes Ghana a destination for international sports activities and urged heads of sports federations to take advantage of the facilities to develop their disciplines.
The just ended edition brought together 5,000 elite athletes and coaches from 54 African countries in 29 multi-sports disciplines.
Some of the events held over two cities; Accra and Cape Coast, were used as official qualifiers for the XXXIII Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The Olympic qualifying events include athletics, swimming, cycling, badminton, wrestling, tennis, table tennis and triathlon.
Saturday’s ceremony was also witnessed by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Mustapha Ussif, African Union Chairperson, Moussa Faki, Ambassador Samate, Dr Kweku Ofosu, the LOC Chairman, among others.
It was spiced by musical performances from Wiyaala and Stonebwoy from Ghana, Camerounian rapper, Stanley Enow, and Congolese musician, Innoss B.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
