Starlets leave Accra on Friday

Accra, Jan. 5, GNA - The Black Starlets' trip to Ethiopia in a final qualifier to the Africa championship in the Gambia in March, this year, has been push back to Friday.

The team was scheduled to leave Accra on Wednesday morning but Ghana Football Association (GFA) sources told the GNA Sports that the change in departure was necessitated by advice by the Ghana Mission on the weather at Addis Ababa, where the match would be played.

A message from the Ghana Mission seen by GNA Sports advised that the team arrive either 10 days or 72 hours before the match because of the effects of the high altitude at Addis Ababa, which affected sports men and women.

The weather, according to the Ghana Mission, was frightening and there were reports of people bleeding through their noses, some collapsing and breathing being extremely difficult.

The BBC reported on Wednesday the death of an 18-year-old Ethiopian female athlete Alem Techale, fianc=E9e of Ethiopia's Olympic 10,000 metres champion Kenenisa Bekele.

She was training with Bekele in Ararat, a forest in a hilly area on the outskirts of Addis Abeba when she collapsed and was carried by Bekele to his car but she died on the way to the hospital. Techale was due to marry the six-time world cross country champion in Addis Ababa on May 8.