Weightlifting captain targets medals at Olympic Games

The captain of the national weightlifting team (Black Cranes) Nii Darko Dodoo has assured that the team would win medals at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil later this year.

The Black Cranes picked one of the five slots (male division) following their participation in the Africa Seniors Weightlifting Championship in Yaoundé, Cameroun, which served as qualifiers for the Olympic Games.

Ghana qualified with 122 points and will join four other countries, Algeria who gained 159 points, Tunisia -159 points, Cameroon- 144 points and Morocco- 133 points to represent the Continent.

This is the first time Ghana had qualified in weightlifting for the global showpiece and the captain of the team remains confident that they would win medals at the games to lift high the flag of Ghana.

Dodoo told the GNA Sports that ‘‘our target is to win medals in Rio and for now our next move is to train hard and focus on the competition. We were determined to qualify and make Ghana proud and this was what pushed us through even though there was a lack of funds.

‘‘We motivated ourselves and at the end, we made it. We are happy about our qualification and I’m very proud since it’s our first time’’.

According to him, the competition was tough but their hard training ahead of the championship helped them through even though many Ghanaians had little confidence in them due to their inability to book a place in the last edition.

The slot was won through the team qualification system where David Akwei scored 18 points, Nii Darko Dodoo, 19 points, Prince Nyarko, 21 points, Christian Amoah, 21 points, Forrester Osei 21 points and Theophilus Takie 22 points.