Sports
Heed to Saminu’s appeal
BEYOND Abdul Rasheed Saminu’s sensational triumph in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) East Preliminary Round lies a call every athletics enthusiast must heed to.
Saminu is Ghana’s latest athletics kid on the block after breaking Benjamin Azamati’s national record in 100m set in 2022.
Azamati set the previous record with a time of 9.87seconds (wind assisted) but Saminu showed class when he dropped it to 9.86 seconds to draw comparisons with South Africa’s leading athlete, Akani Simbine, who clocked 9.90 seconds this year.
The feat earned Saminu a place at the World Athletics Championship to be held in the city of Tokyo in Japan in September.
In that moment of joy, he stormed X (formerly Twitter), where he made a passionate appeal to managers of the sport back home in Ghana.
“Hopefully more to come and I want the world to know we got talents in Ghana. It’s an honour to be the new national record holder…local based athletes deserve more attention as well” he wrote on X.
Previously a typical local athlete that hails from the village of Nanumba in Ghana where he switched to athletics after failing to make a mark in football, Saminu has seen it all at that level of sports in Ghana; the reason why his call cannot and must not be ignored.
In Ghana, football at the lower tiers is often described as ‘wilderness’, a situation that suggest the harsh and difficult circumstances under which clubs navigate their way to the top.
The story with athletics is not different, if not more difficult than football which offers so many platform for players in every corner of the country to showcase their skills.
The now University of South Florida (USF) athlete understands the challenges his peers face in Ghana, trying to rise to the very top level.
The biggest obstacle for athletics in Ghana is the unavailability of infrastructure. Currently, the Legon Sports Stadium remains the only recognised athletics facility in the whole country, courtesy of Ghana’s hosting of the Africa Games Accra 2023 event.
Other facilities around the country are in terrible shapes, and readily coming to mind is the Elwak Sports Stadium which became an alternative venue after the running tracks at the Accra Sports Stadium was scrapped to enable Ghana increase the capacity of the structure to host AFCON 2008.
From 2008 to 2023 when the Africa Games was hosted, nothing was done to develop and promote athletics in Ghana.
Apart from infrastructure, lack of regular competitions have been the biggest bane of the sport as young and promising athletes turn their running spikes into boots to play community football after their second cycle education.
One may ask why but the reason is simple. After completing Senior High School, the next hope for competition lies in their ability to make it to a tertiary institution where they either participate in University games or what was known as Polytechnic (now technical universities) games.
For those that fail to progress, it means the end of a burgeoning career in sports, notably athletics.
That, however, appear to have been dealt with in a way as universities now consider brilliant sports athletes for admission but that’s quite limited.
Unlike football which has clubs scattered all around, athletics have few clubs to accommodate the unlucky ones.
Now in the case where few competitions were organised, prizes presented at some of these competitions were nothing to write home about.
I have witnessed the organisation of such events in the past where winners of some disciplines received pressing irons, fans, heaters, cameras and other products.
From such products, one wonders how such athletes without proper management teams are able to survive and also prepare for other events.
For an athlete with such humble beginnings to his current status to make such call, it truly mean there are a lot of things fundamentally wrong with the athletics system in Ghana.
The current managers of the sport led by the dynamic Bawa Fuseini appear to be doing very well to improve their fortunes but while focusing on getting athletes to qualify for the big events, they must find ways to address concerns such as the one coming from Saminu.
By Andrew Nortey
Sports
‘Black Stars not there yet’
After seeing Mali undone by Alexander Djiku’s second half strike to give Ghana a 1-0 victory over Mali on Monday in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Accra, Otto Addo gave his thoughts in the post-match press conference.
Below are excerpts.
On the game against Mali
You could see that we have a young squad and players who haven’t been playing often for the national team so far; that made them nervous. I think we got a good game.
We increased the pressure early in the second half, and managed to score out of a set piece. And then it was pure fight afterwards, especially the period after the goal.
On decision-making in the final third
I think if you have played before, you know that sometimes there’s a little bounce from the ball or the position is close and you think too much, I told them actually, but as a footballer, it’s normal that you try to look for a perfect solution.
Semenyo’s performance
He did really well, you know, it’s difficult to compare games from the Premier League with games in Africa and Ghana. It’s very, very difficult and then all games have their own nature and surely you can say that he stands more out in the Premier League, but for me today he was excellent, he fought until he couldn’t run anymore.
On Gideon Mensah
Well, I think sometimes he’s a little bit too confident and we had, especially after the Chad game, had some talks and for everyone who has played football on a higher level.
If he does it in La Liga, it’s fine because in La Liga, if you lose the ball to your opponent, he will counter-press you. He needs to simplify his game sometimes. Didn’t look too complicated, but it’s difficult sometimes if you’re coming from a different environment to switch your thinking.
On Kwasi Sibo’s performance
First of all, big congrats for him. I think he really did well. It’s not easy to come from a different environment to fit into the squad, but yeah, he knows a lot of players already in the team and he connected well. He’s very, very confident and I think he did extremely well, especially when you see that this was his first match. .
On Ghanaians being overly expectant
No, I think the expectations are normal. We are Ghana. For me, if everybody is talking before the Chad game that we already won and we are already taking the three points, it’s dangerous because if this gets to the heads of the fans, it’s a problem for me.
I’m warning everybody who think we have already gone to the World Cup to take things easy. It’s not like that. We have to give the same effort as today to beat Central African Republic. If we don’t do this, it’s a big problem. We have a lot of work to do. A lot of work. It’s going to be very, very difficult.
On goal scoring
You know, the last window, we scored eight goals. I think it was ok, but we can’t expect it all the time. So I hope that the players who missed the chances would score the next time. But it’s all about learning, improving and adapting always to the circumstances.
And I think in each situation, they could have taken one, two, three steps more or more time to look for the partner to have a better overview to give the right pass.
Sports
Black Queens Set to Face England Lionesses in International Friendly
The Black Queens will face the Lionesses of England in a high-profile international friendly on December 2,2025 per agreement between the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the England Football Association.
After reaching the semi-finals at the 2024 WAFCON, the Black Queens are determined to build on that performance and establish themselves among the elite teams on the continent.
This match comes off as part of Ghana’s preparations for all international assignments, including the 2026 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (WAFCON).
The fixture against England, one of the world’s top-ranked sides and reigning European champions, is expected to provide the Queens with a tough test that will sharpen the squad.
Head coach Kim Lars Björkegren will also seize the golden opportunity to measure the team’s progress, expose the players to world-class opposition, and correct areas that need improvement.
The Black Queens will head into the encounter motivated to put up a strong performance, not only to test their readiness but also to showcase the strides Ghana continues to make in women’s football on the international stage.
