By: Albert Parker Narteh
The president of the Ghana Paralympic committee Sampson Deen has made passionate appeal to government and corporate bodies to invest in national Paralympic team as the team wraps up their preparation for the final qualifications to Paris 2024 Paralympic games in August.
Mr Deen made the appeal at press briefing at the office of NPC to officially welcome home five of their Para athletes who participated in one of the qualifications Grand Prix in Marrakech, Morocco.
Zinabu Issah won two gold medals in the F57 discus women with a time of 26.66 and in F57 shot put also with a time 7.94. Edmude Govina won bronze in the men’s F46 discus throw with a time of 18.04.
Even though Amos Ahiagah and Diana Kuubetegr could win any medals, they have improved on their record which put them in a good position to secure qualifications.
Addressing the press, Mr. Deen who doubles as the NPC and APC president said “if government or corporate institutions in Ghana will invest just five percent of the amount money spent on football, the national para team will win laurels for the national and make the nation proud”.
“The para team has never returned home from a competition without a medal under my leadership as the president of the National Paralympic committee”
“We have been successful at all international competitions and we will continue to be successful”. Without any doubt Mr Samson Deen was full of praise for the athletes as well as their technical team for good show they put up in Marrakech.
He was optimistic Ghana will have at least eight representations in para athletic, para powerlifting, para table tennis, para tennis , para swimming, para badminton, para cycling and para taekwondo to hoist the flag of Ghana in the August 2024 Paris Paralympic games.
He further started that since the ministry of youth and sports has given the green light for athletes to start campaigning at Legon, the Para team will take that opportunity to prepare adequately for the last qualifications competitions as well the facilities at Borteyman.
In other to improve pare games in the various regions, the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) has presented certificates to four athletes to officially out door them as national team coaches as they prepare for the Paris 2024. Ibrahim Suleiman, Ernest Brako and Patrick Yaw Obeng and Emmanuel Appiah Kubi. They will take charge of the athletes who are within their region in the classification in the various regions.