COMMONWEALTH long jump champion Ignatius Gaisah has blamed the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) for the present state of athletics in the country.
According to Gaisah who was voted the SWAG Sportsman and Athlete of the Year, activities of the association is centred mainly on football and in the process relegating other disciplines to the background.
That, to him, was the reason why government and other stakeholders and potential investors in sports have given very little or no attention to it.
In an interview with the Times Sports last Wednesday after paying a courtesy call on the SWAG president, Ebo Quansah, Gaisah did not hide his dissatisfaction about the support athletes have enjoyed from the Sports Writers welfare body.
In his view, the inadequate support for athletics and other lesser known sports by the government was as a result of the media indifference to their activities.
?The sports media has shown bias towards athletics and has focused on football?, adding ?May be you must change your name from sports writers to football writers?.
On his expectation, Gaisah called for equal media attention by the SWAG to all the sporting disciplines since that will be a booster to the athletes.
?Equal coverage on the activities of all the disciplines would not only attract sponsors but spur the athletes on to strive hard to achieve more laurels for Ghana?.
Despite what he termed as a media blackout, Gaisah noted that his award of the best sportsman and other top awards to Margaret Simpson are indications that SWAG?s attention will be on all disciplines.
On his career, he expressed optimism that barring any injury, he could get to the top in the shortest possible time.
He thanked Ghanaians for the support and prayers he keeps enjoying from them and pledged to train hard to win more medals to keep the flag of Ghana high.
Ebo Quansah, president of SWAG, on his part, commended the athlete for his splendid show that saw him annexing the Commonwealth gold at the just-ended Melbourne Games.
He pledged to ensure that the association give equal attention to other disciplines to widen Ghana?s scope at international games.
Gaisah is expected to travel back to his Holland base tomorrow to begin his training for future assignments.
