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
GoldStars GPL feat no fluke
No prophet in Ghana would have been taken serious with prophesies of Bibiani GoldStars becoming the new champions of the 2024/25 Ghana Premier League (GPL).
That is not to take anything away from Coach Frimpong Manso, an Asante Kotoko legend, and his boys for the yeoman’s job they did in the just ended season.
They deserve every bit of the plaudits coming from well-wishers.
They came, they saw and conquered on their fourth year (2021/2022 season) in the elite stage of Ghana football.
Of course, this can only be a reality in the end but not a sound prediction at the start of the season.
But, so has it been. Stories like that of GoldStars sharply brings to mind a similar fairytale orchestrated in the advanced English Premier League (GPL) with the 2015/16 edition.
In the face of the Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool dominance, Leicester emerged with a bang, conquering every hurdle in sight with unsung heroes like Jamie Vardy, Wilfred Ndidi, Shinji Okazaki, Leonardo Ulloa, Danny Drinkwater, Robert Huth, Riyad Mahrez and others.
There was no indication of that sort at the start of the season.
As usual, the focus was on the aforementioned heavyweights but Leicester took the competition by storm to record a historic win.
Back home, the GoldStars story is not different. Despite the recent struggles by perennial favourites, Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko, the two have always found their ways in fans prediction regarding the side to emerge winners.
Interestingly, both sides just managed to end up in the top four after Nations FC’s decision to abandon a game against Basake Holy Stars who cost them dearly, in the end, forfeiting the said game and going ahead to suffer a further three points deduction penalty.
Nations FC were actually the top favourites for the title until that ill-fated match against Basake Holy Stars.
Campaigning for the second year in the competition, very few followers of the game gave the Timber giants any chance.
But in the same ‘Rambo’ style, teams like Medeama SC and Aduana Stars descended on the GPL, GoldStars emerged with all guns blazing, strategically employing a tactic of making the Dun’s Park in Bibiani, a waterloo for visiting teams.
On a few occasions, they sprung surprises on the journey, recording a few upsets against gullible teams including Hearts of Oak in Accra.
They had a promising coach like Frimpong Manso who is yet to establish himself among the elites local coaches maybe because he is yet to work with any of the established club sides in the country.
But winning the local competition with a less endowed club makes you a legend, and truly, he has become one.
To management and other members of the technical team, one could only congratulate them for a job well executed.
The players have a huge role to play in proving that the feat was no fluke and that GoldStars has come to stay; and would continue to make an impact in the local game.
Much is not known about these players except Vincent Atinga who plied his trade with Hearts of Oak and Medeama SC. Others like Samuel Attah Kumi, Frank Amankwah, Kelvin Oppong, Charles Gyamfi Kamara, Abdul Farouk Amoaful, Gideon Anaba, Samuel Acheampong, Foster Agyei and Yakubu Haqq remain emerging talents aiming to carve a niche for themselves.
Definitely with the new challenge, some areas of the team would be strengthened as they face the finest sides on the continent.
Another season with a new champion should also serve as a wake-up call for the likes of Hearts or Oak and Asante Kotoko to quickly return to their glory days lest they lose their enviable place among the football elite clubs. Well-done GoldStars.
By Andrew Nortey
Sports
Golden Kick, a tricky obstacle for Kotoko in MTN FA Cup final tomorrow
The University of Ghana Stadium will come alive tomorrow when Ghanaian giants, Kumasi Asante Kotoko, take on lower tier side, Golden Kicks FC, in a thrilling climax to the 2024/25 MTN FA Cup final tomorrow at exactly 5pm.
The much anticipated game, which is more than just a battle for silverware but a meeting of tradition and ambition for both teams, is expected to draw thousands of football fanatics across the country to the Legon stadium for what promises to be a dramatic and tricky finale to this season’s domestic cup competition.
After an unsuccessful season in the Ghana Premier League which saw the Reds miss out on the title to Bibiani GoldStars, the Porcupine Warriors will be desperate to finish the season on a high by clinching the title to secure a place in the next CAF interclub competition.
The Reds have a rich history in the FA Cup competition having won it nine times and will be eyeing their 10th title to stamp their authority as the overall best.
Before reaching this stage, Asante Kotoko eliminated formidable opponents like True Democracy, Sekondi Eleven Wise and Berekum Chelsea in the semi-final.
The availability of players like Justice Blay, Kwame Opoku, Frederick Asare, Peter Amidu Acquah and striker Albert Amoah, among other notable players will be a big boost to Coach Karim Zito’s side.
Meanwhile, the task will not be an easy one for Kotoko looking at the way their opponents reached the final with wins over Accra Hearts of Oak and Bechem United before climaxing it with Attram d’ Visser.
Coached by young and tactical Fiifi Parker Hanson, Golden Kicks have a combined youthful team with tactical discipline to punch well above their weight and relish the opportunity to shock the giants once more on a bigger stage.
This final is more than just a contest between Premier League royalty and a hungry underdog but rather a tale of two contrasting football identities. Kotoko brings the weight of tradition, experience, legacy and pressure while Golden Kicks arrive with nothing to lose and everything to prove which makes the game a promised one, full of thrills and fireworks.
By Enoch Ntiamoah
