Ghana Outclasses Nigeria in Swimming Contest

Dolphins, a Ghanaian swimming club based at the Tesano Sports Club House, outpaced the Ikoyi Club of Nigeria in a swimming contest at the last weekend.

The swimming contest which has become an annual affair between the two clubs is in its seventh year.

The Dolphins won 33 gold, 24 silver and 23 bronze while the Ikoyi won only 2 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze. The Dolphins were presented with a trophy and a cash prize. Ghana has won five out of the seven encounters.

In an interview, Mr. Theodore Edzi, First Vice President of Ghana Swimming Association (GSA) and Madam Marguerith Accad, Second Vice President of GSA, bemoaned the lack of financial support from the sporting authorities attributing it the fact that swimming is a less fancied and patronised sport in Ghana. "Look we do everything on our own through members contributions," one of them stressed. "At the moment we need sponsorship to expand our facilities and buy kits."

They claimed that the financial constraints are responsible for the limited places they have for kids. About 90% of swimmers move on to the national team. However, they disclosed that Loya Milk, producers of Cowbell Milk intends to adopt the sport and build an international swimming pool at Laterbiokorshie as soon as plans worked out.

Some of the contestants expressed their enthusiasm for the sport and made a passionate appeal to the sport authorities of the nation to construct more swimming pools to encourage both the youth and adults to take to swimming as a form of exercise.

"In Holland, every child of three years knows how to swim so in times of disasters, they can escape. If this is introduced in Ghana, during floods, more people could avoid drowning and untimely death," one Linda said.

Some of them lamented the situation where football enjoys a huge chunk of the resources to the detriment of the other sporting disciplines such as swimming. "We have made numerous appeals and representations to the National Sports Council to expand the sports but to no avail, everything is football, football and football. I hate hearing the press describing disciplines such swimming as the 'lesser sports."