WORLD ATHLETICS DAY CELEBRATED AT HO (GRAPHIC SPORTS, PAGE 11, JUNE 1, 2010)

This year’s World Athletics Day was last Saturday celebrated with an athletics competition for some selected basic and second cycle schools in the Ho municipality and its environs at the Ho Sports Stadium in the Volta Region on the theme “Athletics, Basis for all Sports”.
As part of activities to mark the day, a tree planting exercise dubbed “Green Project” also took place which trees were planted at the stadium and in all the participating Schools for the athletics competition organized by the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA).
Among the participating schools were the Ho Kpodzi Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) School,Bankoe EP Primary, Kabore Primary School, Holy Spirit Preparatory School, Royal Academy, Mawuko Girls Senior High School (SHS),Mawuli SHS, OLA SHS and the St. Prospers’ College.
The various schools competed in the 80metre (m) race for both Boys and Girls (B/G) 100m B/G, 200m B/G, High Jump B/G, Long Jump B/G, Javelin B/G and Medley relay which saw over 100 school children and over 600 hundred spectators witnessing the events.
Mawuli SHS and OLA Girls topped the day in the U/15-17 competitions while Kabore Primary .School and Bankoe EP Primary thrilled the spectators with their outstanding performance which drew a lot of applause.
In their addresses to mark the day, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Col. Cyril Necky(retd) and the Volta Region Athletics Chairperson, Mrs. Patience Ivy Buami, urged the youth to cultivate interest in athletics since it was one of the sporting disciplines that had made countries such as the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK) and Jamaica in recent times popular at the World Olympics and other International Athletics indoor competitions.
The two speakers at the ceremony also commended the participating teams for their performance and urged them to keep it up since through sports they could one day become famous and earn a living like the world class sprinters and other sports men and women.
Col. Necky and Mrs. Buami also urged the youth to desist from drug abuse and other lifestyles that could jeopardize their future, as well affect their health, and rather channel their energies into sports.
Among officials who graced the occasion were Messrs Richard Agyapong and George Osafo Agyei, National Treasurer and General Secretary of the GAA respectively
At the end of the competition all the participating schools were given Tree seedlings to plant in their school’s compound.