Ghana determined to battle their way to 2019 All African Games

The Badminton Association of Ghana (BAG), has set their eyes on earning tickets to the 2019 Africa Games and 2020 Olympics Games, in Morocco and Tokyo respectively, as the team prepares for the qualification series in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

BAG, would be part of eighteen other countries from the continent to participate in the All Africa Senior Championships, which would come off from April 20 to 29, at the Alfred Diete Spiff Civic Centre, Port Harcourt in Rivers State.

The All African Seniors Championship, is also a selection competition for the Africa Games, to be held in Morocco in August 2019.

The Championships, which is made up of two separate tournaments: The Mixed Team Event holding from April 22 to 25 and the Individual Championship, to hold from April 26 to 28, would also serve as one of the Africa qualifications for the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo.

Team Ghana would be competing against the best teams from the continent for the showpiece event including; Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Congo, Congo DRC, Eritrea, Egypt, and the continent’s number one ranked team Mauritius. Other participating countries are; Kenya, Ivory Coast, Seychelles, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the host country, Nigeria.

Team Ghana has opened camp in Accra on Monday, April 1, ahead of the big event to select the best athletes to make the trip.

Athletes would have to justify their inclusion through a rigorous selection process, with the country expected to present about ten of the best national athletes for the Championships.

Unfortunately, the team’s preparation so far has not come easy as the Association seem to struggle financially without any governmental support.

Mr. Yeboah Evans, President of BAG who is also the Best Federation President Nominee for the SWAG Awards in an interview with the GNA Sports said, their Association have made efforts to get government support since January 2019, but all their efforts have proved futile.

He said all their correspondences to the Ministry of Youth and Sports have not received any positive feedback, which had frustrated the preparations for the Association ahead of the championship.

Mr. Evans, noted that, the Championship was important for BAG, because it was the only means of qualification for African countries to the All African Games and a qualifier for the Olympic Games, which the country could not afford to miss with the talents discovered in the field over the last few years.

He added that BAG was making every effort possible to ensure that Ghana participated in the All Africa Championships to be able to qualify for the global sporting festival next year.

He called on the corporate Ghana to assist the Association to ensure that the fastest developing sports in the country qualified for the All African Games and 2020 Olympics Games. The Association has its website www.ghanabadminton.org and admire its objective as a sport for all.