‘Soldiers’ triumph at GAF Athletics Championship
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) emerged winners at this year’s Ghana Armed Forces Athletics competition on Friday at the Elwak Stadium after winning in both male and female events.
The dominant Armed Forces contingent scored a total of 177 points from 12 events in the Men’s division with the Ghana Prisons Service chalking second place on 92 points and the University of Ghana in third on 48.5 points.
In the women’s division, the Armed Forces also won the top prize, garnering a total of 94 points from seven events, followed by the Ghana Prisons Service on 40 points with the third spot grabbed by the University of Ghana (UG) on 10 points.
The games which was organized to warm athletes into the new season after a long hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, attracted athletics teams from the security services, schools, regions and professional athletic clubs.
The teams included GAF, Prisons, UG, Police, Customs division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS).
Others were Ghanata Senior High School, Western Region Athletics Club, Better Future Athletics Club, Silicon Valley International School and regional teams from Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, Upper West among others.
They competed in disciplines such as men and women 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 4x100m, 4x400m, 1500m and 5000m and field events such as Discus, Long jump, Javelin and Triple jump.
The finals of the 100m race that drew a lot of interest and furor was clinched by GAF’strio of Arkoh-BawuahAugustine Smith with 11.032 secs, followed by IddrisuMusaand OpokuRichmondin that order.
The men’s 4×100 relay was won by UGwith Prisons B in second place and GAF’s Potential in third.
GAF extended their dominance to the 200m race in both men and women competitions.
In the men’s event they swept the first three positions with Osei Kofi John (22.050),Oduro Michael (22.118) and Mensah Frank (22.143).
In the women’s 200m race, GAF’s duo CarbooHelina (25.729) and Adu Stephanie (26.762) secured the first and second positions with Patricia AduAmoah (27.246) from Prisons in third.
Grace Obour braved a heated challenge from Bayer Marryhilda from Police to win the 800m race. Grace’s 2:18.197, time bested Marryhilda’s 2:18.951. Tulong Reina from Wa finished third with 2:20.647.
Guest of Honour, Director-General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Professor Peter Twumasi signified the importance of the competition, indicating that it was a platform to unearth talents ahead of the 2023 Africa Games in Ghana.
He assured that his outfit would partner the GAF on similar projects to ensure that facilities were always available and in the right condition to be accessed by athletes.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), Bawa Fuseini lauded GAF for organizing a competition he described as “timely as it provided an avenue for athletes to warm up ahead of major events that would be announced soon.”
Col. Richard Akotoh, Director of Training and Sports of GAF, indicated that his outfit was going to roll out bigger athletics competitions next year.
BY NANA BENTSI ODURO
