By Michael Kofi Kenetey
The Ghana University Sports Association, GUSA, has climaxed this year’s 28th Inter-University Cross Country and Minor GUSA Games at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Somanya, in the Eastern Region with an Awards Night ceremony.
The competition, which saw sixteen public universities in the country participating, saw the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, emerge as the overall winner by the end of the competition. The participating universities include the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, UESD, who was the host, University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana, Legon, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University for Development Studies, UDS, Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, and the University of Education, Winneba.
Others include, the University of Health and Allied Sciences, C.K. Tedam University of Technology and Applied Sciences, University of Mines and Technology, Ghana Communication Technology University, University of Media, Arts and Communication, University of Professional Studies, Accra, University of Energy and Natural Resources, and the University of Business and Integrated Development Studies.
In an interview with the media at Somanya, the President of GUSA, Professor Shaibu Ibrahim Tanko, hinted they decided to organize the games at UESD to help the young university grow to become one of the biggest public universities in the country. He appealed for support for GUSA games as it helps to unearth talents at the tertiary level for the country.
The Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, Kwame Poku, noted that after realizing the benefits and the fraternity it generates when they participated in the GUSA games last year, they decided to host this year’s minor games to help advertise UESD to the country and potential students.
The Head Coach of the Over All winning University, KNUST, Emmanuel Abban commended his team for working hard to emerge as the overall winner of the competition. He urged tertiary students not to take sports for granted. Furthermore, he also called for sponsors to take interest in sponsoring GUSA Games since it is capital intensive and also helps to bring out talents for the country.
The competition, which was on the theme “Harnessing the Lesser-Known Sports, the Key to Developing the 21st Century Sportsman,” saw public universities competing in a range of sports disciplines, including cross-country, a 2.5-kilometer mixed relay, ampe, Ampey, Scrabble, scrabble and tug-of-war.
