Category: Sports

Serene Insurance Ghana Limited, a leading and the fastest growing insurance company in Ghana, has renewed its commitment with the annual Accra Inter-City Homowo Marathon, fixed for August 3, 2024.

The third edition of the Accra Inter-City Homowo Marathon would witness the finest athletes across Ghana and Africa as they compete for more than GHC 50,000 in cash prizes.

Serene Insurance would provide insurance coverage for all participants in the race, running vest for over 500 athletes, and an undisclosed cash package.

Mr. Henri Senyo Penni, General Manager of Medivents Consult, organisers of the event expressed their appreciation to the company for their support, adding that it would motivate athletes to put up their best performance.

He thanked Serene Insurance Company for their continuous support for the marathon, which is part of celebrations to mark this year’s Homowo festival.

Mr. Senyo Penni noted that this year’s race would see a massive improvement in terms of the safety and security of athletes.

M
r. Penni disclosed the formal launch of this year’s Marathon would be held in May to herald the commencement of activities leading to the climax.

Nana Yaw Owusu Dwomoh – General Manager in charge of Business Development and Marketing said his outfit was committed to the annual race hence the need to renew the relationship.

He noted that they were looking forward to a great event this year, as the annual marathon features in their annual activities.

The 2024 Accra Inter-City Homowo Marathon would begin at the Accra Sports Stadium through some principal streets and end at the Bukom Boxing Arena.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) in its quest to strengthen the developmental structures for youth football has appointed five coaches to lead the various national teams.

They are Godwin Attram, Maxwell Konadu, Yaw Preko, Abdul Karim Zito and Nurudeen Amadu.

Four of these coaches have been assigned to the newly created male national teams, U-15, U-18, U-19 and U-21, which seeks to nurture young talents from grassroots level to the national stage.

The national U-15 team would be handed by former Medeama SC Head Coach, Yaw Preko who has paid his dues in local and international football.

He comes with some level of coaching experience having handled the Black Satellites and the national U-17 team.

Coach Yaw Preko aside his national team exposure has also worked with the likes of Great Olympics, Accra Hearts of Oak and Nigerian side Ifeanyi Ubah.

FC Samartex boss, Coach Nurudeen Amadu has also been appointed Head Coach of the national U-18 team.

His addition to the list of coaches did not come as surpr
ise to many who have enjoyed his superb coaching style in the Ghana Premier League (GPL) over the years.

The 53 year-old, who is currently leading the race to win the GPL title has also worked with the national U-17 team, Aduana Football Club and King Faisal Babies FC.

Dreams FC Head Coach, Abdul Karim Zito has been assigned to the national U-19 team with hopes of building a formidable squad for Ghana.

With several years of experience in his career, the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winner once served as Head Coach for Asante Kotoko, Hearts of Oak, King Faisal and Kwaebibirem FC.

To his credit, Karim Zito won the U-20 WAFU Championship in 2020 before clinching the AFCON title a year after.

The experienced gaffer is on the verge of making history with Dreams FC in the CAF Confederations Cup as they journey in search of a place in the finals.

Godwin Attram, former Black Stars striker has been also been given the nod to lead the national U-21 team whereas Nsoatreman FC coach, Maxwell Konadu would head
the national U-23 team, the Black Meteors.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ms. Millicent Ankude, a table tennis player of Vilcabamba Club, has appealed to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), philanthropists, and the government to explore opportunities in the sports sector.

Ms Ankude told the GNA Sport in an interview that focusing on table tennis could stimulate economic growth through job creation, tourism, and the development of the entire sport industry.

She explained that investing in table tennis had numerous positive effects on individuals, communities, and society, but sadly the game was considered one of the lesser-known sports in Ghana, leading to low attention on it despite its potential to lift the flag of Ghana high on the world map.

‘We need funds, we need proper investments, and long-term investment if stakeholders and people of interest can actually see the game and create training avenues for us that would be beneficial,’ she stated.

The table tennis player said the sector could boost the interest of the players to give out their best as well as attract others
to learn the game, which would further increase the medals the country obtains from competitions at different levels.

She suggested that there must be training centres at the community level with the necessary tools, such as tables and rackets, to make training easier and more interesting.

She said the sport could bring people together to foster a sense of community, creating opportunities for teamwork and leadership development, especially among young people.

Ms Akunde appealed to schools to focus on table tennis, stressing that participation in sports can teach important life skills such as discipline, teamwork, goal setting, and resilience, which could further contribute to their academic success.

She expressed worry that it was extremely difficult for minor sports to get media attention in Ghana and journalists to increase awareness on the game to help Ghanaians appreciate the importance of playing table tennis.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Addis Ababa: The government of Ethiopia has been implementing various homegrown initiatives with a view to mitigate the impacts of climate change and ensure food security of the people, Minister of Agriculture Girma Amente remarked.

The minister made the remark at the opening of High-Level Side Event on the margins of the 14th Session of the African Risk Capacity Conference of Parties in Addis Ababa.

The High-Level Panel aims to convene a diverse array of stakeholders, including policymakers, executives and representatives and experts of continental institutions to share lessons, build on existing strengths, and address the multifaceted challenges that the African food system faces.

The meeting will also addresses the interlinkages between climate change and food systems for food security, and resilience in Africa by fostering dialogue and knowledge exchange on climate-smart agricultural practices, technologies, and policies as well as resilience building efforts that enhance food security while mitigating
climate change impacts.

Attempting to identify Africa’s major opportunities and challenges in implementing climate-smart solutions and resilience building efforts at national, regional, and continental levels is also the other objetive.

Ethiopia’s Agriculture Minister Girma Amente said on the occasion that despite Africa is endowed with immense resources vital to ensuring food security; the continent has still been suffering from the harsh impacts of natural and manmade disasters.

However, he said Ethiopia is exerting efforts in order to alleviate the negative impacts of climate change and ensure food security in the country by implementing various homegrown development initiatives.

The minister mentioned the ongoing Green Legacy Initiative which has so far enabled the nation plant more than 32.5 billion tree seedlings stating that the objective is to reach 50 billion at the end of 2026.

The initiative is playing critical role in increasing the forest coverage of the country, he added.

The Minister has
also shared Ethiopia’s success registered in wheat development program that was initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed pointing out the national wheat irrigation development currently underway on 3 million hectares of land across the country.

Girma said Ethiopia is sharing its success being registered in wheat development to other African countries.

Ethiopia has also been implementing National Food System Roadmap with view to successfully achieve efforts being carried out to ensure food security, the minister stated.

He called on African nations to strengthen cooperation in order to fight the impacts of climate change and food insecurity.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Addis Ababa: Africa is making progress in 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but the current pace of progress is insufficient to achieve the goals by 2030, according to an experts report on the progress on Africa Sustainable Development.

The report launched ahead of the 10th Session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia indicates that progress on the SDG agendas varies across sub-regions.

The report was produced by a team of experts convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in collaboration with African Union Commission, the United Nations Development Programme Regional Bureau for Africa (UNDP-RBA), and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

On the occasion, the Deputy Executive Secretary for Programme Support at the ECA, Antonio Pedro underlined the lack of robust data as a major hurdle in tracking progress accurately. Improving data systems to effectively monitor and achieve the SDGs is essential, he stressed.

‘Addressin
g wide-ranging challenges-including social, political, environmental, and economic-is essential; specific focus areas like women’s empowerment, peacebuilding, and security need targeted attention,’ said Pedro, stressing the need to take advantage of technological advances, including artificial intelligence, to target interventions and achieve the SDGs with greater efficiency.

He said there is need to foster domestic resource mobilization through evolving a better and innovative tax system. Countries need to improve institutional governance, strengthen data collection, analysis and reporting and devise better strategies for debt restructuring.

Africa still accounts for over half (54.8 Percent) of global poverty. Particular attention therefore needs to be paid to addressing child poverty – the number of children living in extremely poor households, as about 7 out of 10 poor children live in Africa. In addition, lack of access to clean water, sanitation, energy, health, and education services coupled with ineq
uality, infrastructure gaps, climate change, ethnic conflicts and limited employment opportunities are among the key drivers of poverty in Africa.

On climate financing, the progress report shows the high climate financing gap in Africa. A large chunk of these resources emanates from public sector compared to private sector climate financing.

‘Issues of policies on carbon market, debt for climate swaps, and carbon tax on natural resources, as well as the establishment of national sustainable financial framework for climate change should be addressed,’ says the report.

The surge in debt across African countries is impeding Africa’s development, as debt servicing costs crowd out resources for social spending.

There has also been limited donor support for capacity building; on average, African countries spend a trivial 0.5 percent of GDP on science, technology, and innovation.

To bridge the gap and ensure that the continent achieves the SDG goals by 2030, the report recommends investing in data and capacity,
integrating different data sources, developing new and alternate indicators, identifying new partners with tools and solutions such as the private sector, NGOs/CSO and academia.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The national amateur boxing team, the Black Bombers will be in New Zealand in June this year to participant in the International Professional and Amateur Boxing tournament in Auckland with their New Zealand counterparts.

According to Vice President of the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF) Mr. Dauda Fuseni, the programme was to enable boxers of the two countries to test and sharpen their skills ahead of major international boxing events.

He said while the main team would be in Thailand to participate in the second World Boxing Qualifier for Paris 2024, the reserve side comprising other top young budding pugilists like Mohammed Aryeetey and Abu Kamoko would get the opportunity to travel to New Zealand for the project which is a bilateral relationship agreed by the Amateur Federations of the two countries.

Mr. Fuseni said the Black Bombers remarkable performance at the 13th?African Games where they bagged four gold, one silver and two bronze medals had been noticed and Ghana was still seen as a great boxing natio
n.

‘We need the exposure, our boys are good, but they lack international exposure and experience, they must go out to fight or we must invite other nationals here and it is not easy, so when such opportunities come we should not let it slip’ he said in a media interview.

Mr. Fuseni said the Black Bombers must be in Paris at all cost adding ‘We should be at the 2024 Olympic Games, we have made the history and we should maintain it’.

Source: Ghana News Agency

 The 2023-24 Ghana Premier League entered week 27 with several intriguing matchups.

After a stormy seven-match winless streak, Asante Kotoko defeated league leaders FC Samartex 1996 at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.

Enoch Morrison’s second-half penalty was enough to give the Porcupine Warriors all three points, pushing them further away from the relegation zone and leapfrogging arch-rivals Hearts of Oak in the league standings.

Despite their loss, FC Samartex 1996 maintains its five-point advantage at the top of the table, since Nations FC also dropped points away at Heart of Lions.

Accra Hearts of Oak failed to capitalize on their 3-1 victory against Karela United last week, losing 2-0 to Legon Cities at Dawu Park.

Albert Yeboah scored twice for the Royals, who secured maximum points to move closer to safety.

Nsoatreman FC defeated Bottom-placed Real Tamale United 2-1, reducing their hopes of avoiding relegation this season.

Mohammed Mankuyeli’s first-half strike was enough, as two late second-half goa
ls from Collins Cudjoe clinched all three points for Nsoatreman FC.

Heart of Lions, another team aiming to avoid relegation, defeated Nations FC 3-0 at the Kpando Sports Stadium.

Mohaison Mahmoud, Akwasi Bentil and Nana Kwame Oppong were on the scoresheet for Heart of Lions who are now second from bottom.

Bofoakwa Tano couldn’t capitalize on home advantage as they were held to 1-1 draw by Bechem United at the Sunyani Coronation Park.

Below are some results of week 27:

Asante Kotoko 1-0 FC Samartex 1996

Heart of Lions 3-0 Nations FC

Bibiani Gold Stars FC 1-0 Aduana Stars

Bofoakwa Tano FC 1-1 Bechem United

Real Tamale United 1-2 Nsoatreman FC

Karela United 1-1 Accra Lions FC

Legon Cities 2-0 Hearts of Oak

Great Olympics – Dreams FC (Postponed)

Source: Ghana News Agency

Ghana’s Maclean Atsu Dzidzienyo won silver medal at the 2024 Plock Orlen Polish Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Poland.

Dzidzienyo came second after he lost to his Polish counterpart in the final on 7-5, and 6-0.

However, in the female category, Ghana’s Bridget Nartey from the Koforidua Sports club lost her first single match in the competition, though she came back strongly to win two other matches.

Though she did not win any medal, she had gained International Tennis Federation (ITF) ranking points to enhance her chances of qualifying for Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

In an interview with the GNA Sports, Dr. Henry Larbi, Coordinator of the Ghana Wheelchair Tennis said it was a great performance from Dzidzienyo after the athlete went on break since 2020.

He said Dzidzienyo had gained another ITF ranking points now and Ghana Tennis Federation would continue to support him in such international tournaments.

Source: Ghana News Agency