Kyle, Osei arrive for Olympic qualifiers

The Technical Director of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF), Prof. Kyle Pierce and UK based Ghanaian weightlifter Forrester Osei arrived in Ghana last Tuesday for the Africa Weightlifting Championship in Yaoundé, Cameron.

The National Weightlifting Team, Black Cranes will leave the shores of Ghana to participate in the Africa Seniors Weightlifting Championship in Yaoundé on Friday, May 6, 2016.

The competition also serves as the qualifiers for 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

Speaking in an interview with the media, Forrester Osei who is the current national record holder of Snatch 140 KG, Jerk 170 KG and Total 315 KG said he was excited to be back home to join his colleagues.

He called on Ghanaians to support the team in their pursuit for a spot at the Olympics which is the biggest stage any athlete wants to be.

“Most of the African nations are going to come and compete for the same sport for the Olympics so we need the support of Ghanaians to make it to Rio,” he said.

He added that “for me I am ready because I have trained hard enough to get myself to this point and I am hoping my colleagues have also done exactly the same thing which will give us a great chance to get a spot.”

On his part, Prof Pierce who seemed more excited to be in Ghana said he is hoping to get good performances from his athletes because the competition would be tight.

He mentioned that although he has been in close contact with the team, he believes the team needs more preparations and his is to fine tune what the technical team has done.

Qualification to Rio will be based on the top five team scored on points and each country in the top five will have an athlete qualifying to Rio.

A 10-member delegation made up of seven athletes and three officials will be representing Ghana at the competition.

The athletes include; Christian Amoah, Forrester Osei, Prince Nyarko, Theophilus Tackie, Nii Darku Dodoo, David Akwei and Ruth Baffoe while Prof Kyle Pierce, Abubakar Taylor and Kwaku Obeng will accompany the team as officials.