SENIOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP APRIL 22 (PAGE 31, APRIL 10, 2010))

The Second Elite Youth, junior and Selected Senior Athletics Championship is billed to take place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi from April 22 to 25.
The championship is aimed at selecting a formidable national team for the Youth Olympics Athletics qualifier for the Under-17 category to be held in Dakar, Senegal, on May 17, this year. It will also select a squad for the West Africa Junior championship for the Under-19 category scheduled to take place in Bamako, Mali, this year and the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) senior championship in Nairobi, Kenya from July 28 to August 1, also in the year.
The championship is being organised by the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) in collaboration with the National Sports Council (NSC), Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education.
Mr George Osafo Agyei, the Executive Secretary of the GAA, who disclosed this in an interaction with Daily Graphic in Accra said the best athletes from all over the country from the youth, junior and senior categories had been invited to participate in the championship.
He said two officials, of which one should be from the Ghana Education Service (GES), had been invited to accompany the teams from the 10 regions to the championship, which he described to be a thriller and also to produce a formidable team to represent the country at the above mentioned championships.
Mr Agyei stated further that in order not to select over aged athletes, the GAA have requested all participating athletes to come along with photocopies of their birth certificates for verification.
The executive secretary of the GAA reiterated the call on corporate bodies and individuals to consider sponsoring activities of the association since it also had the potential to produce national champions at the continental and world stages to make the nation proud and popular.
Mr Albert Nukpezah, the Athletics Chief Coach, for his part, called for some level of attention for athletics in the country to help unearth talents and also put the nation on the continental and world levels of athletics.