Executive chairman of the Accra 2023 African Games Organising Committee Kweku Ofosu-Asare has stated that it is planning to organise overseas training programmes for athletes, technical officers and administrators prior to the Games.
Ofosu-Asare claims the Organising Committee has plans to make arrangements for athletes to travel to other countries with superior facilities to prepare them for the Games.
“When you take boxing, for instance, we are looking at a country like Cuba and we intend to make arrangements to take them there,” Ofosu-Asare told Times Sports.
“We have a programme to train athletes with the help of Dr Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah, chief operating officer of Accra 2023, who is an expert in monitoring athletes and their growth.
“Indeed, when it comes to boxing, we will call on Professor Azumah Nelson to assist in the selection process to train these boxers.
“Also, well-structured plans have been put in place to acquire the necessary tools for that.”
Ofosu-Asare insisted that it was wise to recruit technical officials to provide training programmes for technical officers and administrators when staging the Games.
“When hosting events like this, you do not only focus on the athletes, but also prepare your technical officials by inviting expert trainers down to provide extensive training for them,” he said.
“If you look at those in administration, there is the need for them to be trained as well; so the training programmes will be for administrators, technical officers and athletes.”
The Organising Committee is currently building two multi-purpose halls to host judo, karate and badminton competitions.
Accra 2023 is set to take place in August next year, although the official dates have not been confirmed.
It is the first time that Ghana has been selected to stage the event after beating Nigerian and Burkinabè capitals Abuja and Ouagadougou, respectively, to the hosting rights.
