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President of the Women Sports Association of Ghana (WOSPAG), Mrs Joyce Mahama has called on the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF) to feature more females in the upcoming 2020 Olympic qualifier for African boxers at Dakar, Senegal next month.
In an interview, she told the Times Sports that since national football teams including the Black Meteors and Black Queens have failed to qualify to the Tokyo 2020 Games, other disciplines like athletics, boxing, fencing, volleyball, weightlifting, table tennis and swimming must be encouraged to make a heavy presence.
Her call has come in the wake of financial concerns expressed by the GBF which will make it extremely difficult to enter women into the competition.
“Registering women in all the weight categories for Ghana will be a good thing but it comes with a financial burden the GBF cannot handle alone,” said the GBF President George Lamptey at a previous function for trainers.
But according to Mrs Mahama, the country must ensure that boxers in all weight categories were engaged in the Olympic qualifiers in order to get more athletes to qualify for the event.
“Our female boxers are very good; I feel they should be encouraged to go for the qualifiers for experience and exposure. This issue of no money to cater for all the boxers must stop. We must even take some media personnel to accompany the team to Senegal and report on the qualifiers,” she said.
She urged the media to support the various national teams that were going for qualifiers for the global showpiece.
Mrs Mahama expressed appreciation to the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah for his vision and relationship with the African National Olympic Committees Association (ANOCA) to secure funds to support the preparation of Ghanaian athletes towards the Olympic Games.
She tasked all sportsmen and women going for Olympic qualifiers to do their best and make it to the top.
