We'll keep cross country race on track - Oduro-Mensah

Accra, March 19, GNA - Prince Ernest Oduro-Mensah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Sports Council (NSC) has assured the sporting public that the Council would do its utmost best to sustain the Cross Country competition, which had been in the doldrums for a number of years.

The Chief Executive Officer who was addressing the revived Cross Country Race at Tamale on Saturday, March 17, said that he would personally get involved in the organisation of the competition so as to ensure its sustenance.


Prince Oduro-Mensah who said this in a statement issued from the Public Relations Unit of the NSC copied to the GNA Sports, added that the NSC would turn particular attention to long distance runners by offering them the best of training to put them in good shape for international championships, alongside their short-distance counterparts.


He therefore appealed to corporate bodies and lovers of the sport to come to aid of the Council to help develop and promote sports in the country.


Prince Oduro-Mensah noted that a number of sports championships would take place in Tamale, as part of the Council's quest to merge development and promotion of sports in the country.


He expressed gratitude to all those who contributed to the revival of the Cross Country Championship this year.

About 160 athletes drawn from the ten regions and the security agencies at the weekend participated in this year's National Cross country Competition in Tamale with the Ghana Armed Forces and the Central Region emerging as winners of the men and women races. The Central Region was adjudged the overall best team with 13 points followed by the Ghana Armed Forces with 21 points with the Western Region placing third with 43 points.


The event which was organised by NSC forms part of activities marking the 50th Independence Anniversary Celebration as well as the resurrection of the event after the last event hosted in Sekondi in 2001.


In the women's eight-kilometer race, Lance Corporal Esinam Torgbaza of the Armed Forces from the Military Support Service Unit, Accra won in a time of 30 minutes 26 seconds and Esther Afadzie from the Central Region following at the second position in a time of 30 minutes, 33 seconds, while Lucy Baidoo from Western Region finished third in a time of 31 minutes, 34 seconds.


Laborun Daniel of the Ghana Armed Forces, Sixth Infantry Battalion (6BN), Tamale finished the men's 12-kilometer race in a time of 38 minutes, 48 seconds with his colleague Yin Anthony coming second in a time of 39 minutes, four seconds while William Akuka from the Northern Region came third in a time of 40 minutes, 42 seconds.