The President of the Ghana Wrestling Association (GWA), Mr Norbert Amefu, has urged regional bodies to promote the sport at the local level to make it attractive to the youth.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association held in Accra on Saturday, Mr Amefu said the regional associations had huge roles to play in making the sport popular in the country.
“The aim is to get regional associations across the country and promote the sport to become one of the best in the country. This would require that the authorities at the local level endeavour to attract more young people to the sport,” he said.
He added that, wrestling was a traditional sports that would gain huge grounds and benefits for Ghana if it was promoted and managed from the regional, national and then at the international levels.
Ghana, he said had great potentials in the sport and urged stakeholders to come on board to ensure they develop the discipline to the highest level.
He tasked all regional associations to organise a major competition every year to get more talents into the sport.
Currently, he said they had seven regional associations and would do well to be present across all regions by the end of the year.
“We would be starting from the scratch and get the young ones involve and move to the communities,” he stressed, urging all to work hard to achieve expectations.
For his part, founding President of the GWA, Mr Dzaga Ameyi, said it was important to promote the discipline at the community level as it would go a long way to foster national growth.
He also encouraged practitioners to be passionate about the sport to become champions in future.
“I am happy that gradually, we are growing in membership and leaders must do well to move the association to higher levels subsequently,” he added.
He also urged young practitioners to learn from their trainers to become great professionals.
The AGM, which was held ahead of a Freestyle Wrestling Championship, also saw the commissioning of four committees including the Technical Committee which would be headed by Cynthia Dotsey with support from Haruna Ashitey and John Dekagbe.
The Referees Committee would be headed by Richard Hamond with Awuah Boateng and George Ewusi as members, while the Organising Committee would be led by Henry Habadi with support from Kwadwo Twumasi.
There was also the Disciplinary Committee which would be headed by Capt. Dr Jonathan Amponsah.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE