Team Ghana train ahead of Commonwealth Games

With the days winding down to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Ghanaian athletes continue their preparation at their pre-Games camp in Ayrshire.

Team Athletics and the other nine sporting disciplines have benefited immensely from the training facilities, accommodation, transportation and the warm welcome by their host, the South Aryshire Council.

According to Erasmus Kwaw, Communications Manager of the GOC, the Team’s daily routine sees athletes wake up at 6:00am, breakfast is between 7:00 to 9:00am while training starts at 9-30am.

The buses to various venues arrive on time for departure. Lunch and supper is served by a Ghanaian Chef and crew at mid-day, and 6:30pm respectively.

Commenting on the importance of the pre-Games camp for Ghana Athletics, current national triple jump record holder and Commonwealth Games silver medalist, Professor Andrew Owusu, said the right ingredients have to be available for training camps to be successful.

“Training camps are good so long as all the necessary variables are in place i.e. training facilities, physiotherapy/medical services, accommodation, feeding and transportation are key variables,” he said. However, Prof. Owusu added that “you also need adequate level of technical expertise to guide the athletes.”

When asked about whether Team Ghana’s camping base for the Commonwealth Games has the necessary variables to put the athletes in shape for the Games, Prof. Owusu expressed his satisfaction about the structures for the camp.

“Yes, the camp has all the key variables. It’s worth noting that as the needs come up our host, the South Aryshire Council, have helped to address them.”

He added, “For athletics, we have access to two tracks: the Dam Park track and the Ayrshire Athletic oval at Kilmarnock. The Dam Park track is an eight lane track with runways for the horizontal jumps and high jump, discus and javelin.

“The track at Kilmarnock is relatively brand new. We use that for the decathlete, Atsu Nyamadi because they have the pole vault pit as well.”

Among the ten disciplines, who will be representing Ghana at the Games, athletics has the largest number of qualifiers numbering about 22.

The team is being coached by Professor Charles Yendork (sprints and middle distance) and Prof. Andrew Owusu (long and triple jump), and has a mixture of home and foreign based athletes.

In addition, the team has access to voluntary services of renowned American Athletics coach, Dean Hayes. Coach Hayes’s primary role is to supervise the training of the javelin and discus throwers as well as the multi-events (decathlon and heptathlon).

Hayes is a former USA national track and field team head coach and has trained several Ghanaian athletes as far back as 1974. He has helped several Ghanaian athletes at one point or another.

The latter list includes athletes Christian Nsiah, Albert Agyemang, Tanko Braimah, John Dodoo, Andrew Owusu, Eric Nkansah, Francis Dodoo, Boniface Amuzu, Naomi Ansah, Rosina Amenebede and Asamuel Adade.

The current team in training camp includes sprinters Janet Amponsah and Beatrice Gyaman, members of the women’s 4x100m relay team that won a surprise silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games as well as some sensational talents such as 200m/400m specialist Vivian Mills, 2012 African javelin throw silver medalists John Ampomah and decathlete Atsu Nyamadi.

“Athletics is a relatively young and inexperienced team. The average age is 22 years. Most of them are first year students in University. This the biggest performance stage so far for 90% of the team. My expectation is that at the minimum, they replicate qualifying performances and at best perform at a slightly better level than their incoming marks,” Prof. Owusu concluded.