Accra 2023: Ghana Athletics Team to camp in South Africa or Cape Coast ahead of African Games

Ghana Athletics is considering South Africa and Cape Coast as the place for Team Ghana’s camping ahead of the 13th edition of the African Games to be staged in March 2024 in Accra.

However, the camping date is yet to be decided.

Ghana will host the tournament for the first time with 54 countries, and 30 sporting disciplines, 8 of which will be qualifiers for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Ghana Athletics believes the weather conditions in South Africa will be favorable to the athletes in preparation for the competition.

Many of Ghana’s athletes are based in the USA where they train mostly indoors due to the cold weather during winter.

The indoor facilities are also smaller than the outdoor facilities so it would be prudent for the athletes to prepare in an area with better outdoor facilities and advantageous weather conditions.

“We have indoor season and outdoor season.”

“The indoor season ends in March, so from now, until March, all our foreign-based athletes will be training in indoor facilities in the USA especially.”- Bawa Fuseini told a press conference on Monday.

“Because of the winter in that country, you cannot train outside, so the only place in the world where there will be no winter is South Africa-  they will have summer when the Europeans have winter.”

“Instead of allowing athletes to train in the indoor facilities which are smaller than the outdoor facilities, we would like to bring them where they can have access to outdoor facilities.”

“Secondly, South Africa is a high altitude area just like Kenya so training at a high altitude area to compete at a low altitude area(Ghana) is an advantage” – Bawa Fuseini added.

Story By: Princeton Wiredu