Athletics - At least ten to go for Commonwealth
games
Black Stars back home amid heavy security
Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - The senior national team, the Black Stars, arrived home on Tuesday amid heavy security presence at the Kotoka International Airport and without much fanfare after failing to qualify for the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
The Stars lost their quarterfinal encounter with neighbouring Nigeria after scrapping through the preliminary round. The team was met on arrival by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Edward Osei Kwaku and Vice Chairman of the Ghana Football Association, Emmanuel Owusu Ansah and was cheered on by a few soccer fans.
Ben Koufie told the GNA Sports that he thought the Stars could go beyond the quarterfinal stage but failed because the boys could not raise their game in the second half as they lost most of the 50-50 balls. He said the current team would be retained for the future adding that plans are afoot to arrange trial matches with some of the teams that have qualified for this year's World Cup, to keep the boys in shape for 2006 World Cup dream.
The Chairman described as malicious and baseless reports that he has fired head coach Osam Duodu. "They are wicked lies being told by the press who want to spoil our programme and the team", he said.
Mr Koufie said the coach was given a mandate to take the team to the Cup of Nations and since the tournament is over the GFA would decide on his future. Mr Osam Duodu said they went to the tournament to make an impression and that he was satisfied with the team's performance adding that the boys should be kept together for future tournaments. Ask about his future plans with the team, the coach said he is only a technical director and would consider his future with the team.
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Bamako (Mali) 06 February 2002 - Two members of the Black Stars who crushed out of the 23rd African Cup of Nations in Mali played the Good Samaritan when they donated a total of 300 dollars to the Sports Supporters of Ghana (SSOG) who are stranded in Bamako, Mali.
Captain of the Stars, Emmanuel Osei Kuffuor gave them 100 dollars while Portugal based Emmanuel Duah parted with 200 dollars. The donations were made at the Bamako International Airport, Senou, before the Stars’ departure on Tuesday when the plight of the supporters was conveyed to the players by Nii Lantey Vanderpuje, a Radio Ghana commentator who was scheduled to leave on the same flight with the Stars.
The supporters who were transported to Mali by Mr James Yalley on a Ghana Private Road Transport Union GPRTU bus are stranded because they could not afford fuel for the bus, which was given to them free of charge by the GPRTU.
Mr Yalley, leader of the 60-member group said he has no money to fuel the bus back home as was the agreement between him and the GPRTU. Under the circumstances, he approached Mr Ben Koufie, Chairman of the Ghana Football Association for assistance but the FA boss said the association was not economically buoyant enough to assist him.
The supporters' leader also made a representation to the Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports who told him that he had no mandate from Ghana to dispense with 1000 dollars, which Mr Yalley was asking for. The group's final expectation fizzled out when they failed to hear from Colonel George Minyila (rtd), Ghana's Ambassador to Burkina Faso with oversight responsibility in Mali, who they had contacted earlier when the Ambassador visited Bamako to assess the level of injury inflicted on three of the supporters by Burkinabe fans after the Stars match with the Stallions in Mopti.
Mr Yalley said he had relayed SSOG's predicament to the Ambassador and even though he had promised to react positively to their demand when he arrived at his base in Ouagadougou, he has not heard from him. Consequently, he approached Mr Vanderpuje who rallied Ghanaian journalists in Bamako to appeal to the players through skipper Kuffour, leading to the donation.
The SSOG had arrived in Mali with a maxi bag of gari and shito, which have been their main meal since reaching the Malian city of Mopti, where the Black Stars had been hosted alongside Group B teams in the CAN 2002. Two members of the group suffered knife injuries when they were attacked by militant Burkinabe supporters after the Stars had sent the Stallions home with a 2-1 victory in the last preliminary match at Mopti.
Ironically, Mr Yalley had launched his drive to convey 200 supporters to Mali to cheer the Black Stars at the tournament at a wildly publicized press conference in Accra. He even promised he would take two members nominated by each of the 22 players to the competition as a motivation for the players.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - Koforidua Based Power FC rejoined the Star Premier League after a year in the division one league when they beat Ghapoha Readers 3-2 in a play-off match at the Accra Sports Stadium on Tuesday.
The game, which was played between the third placed team in the National Middle League and the 14th team of the 2001 Premier League in last year's Premier league, travelled into extra time after Ghapoha had opened a two goal lead before Power fought back to equalize.
Ghapoha opened the scoring in the first minute through Richard Anderson before skipper Alex Awuah increased the tally to two through a rebound after his initial free kick hit the wall for him to deliver a powerful shot into the angle of the goal in the 11th minute.
Ghapoha kept the pressure on their opponents until the 27th minute when Referee Justus Agbeko sent out Ghapoha's Amui Quaye for stamping a Power player. The send-off changed the whole direction of the game as Power pushed more men forward to exploit their numerical advantage.
Power's pressure paid off in the 35th minute when Mike Serwonu headed into the net a lob from a free-kick over the Ghapoha defence to go into the break with only one goal deficit.
Power continued where they left off in the first half and gave Ghapoha's defence some anxious moments, but poor finishing robbed them of the equalizer. Ghapoha's defence finally succumbed and Power equalized in the 82nd minute when substitute Sulley Nuffio's header beat Joseph Mensah.
With the match travelling into extra time, proceedings had hardly gone above one minute when the enterprising Nuffio squared perfectly unto the path of Amoako Moses to curl a superb one into Ghapoha’s net to fetch the golden goal which sent the entire Power bench surging unto the field to celebrate their premiership return.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 06 February 2002 - The Ghana Amateur Athletics Association (GAAA) on Tuesday debunked an earlier report that only three Ghanaian athletes would represent the country at this year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
The GNA Sports a fortnight ago quoted a National Sports Council source as saying that only SWAG female Athlete of the Year, Vida Anim; Aziz Zakari and Margaret Simpson have been pencilled to don the national colours at the games. The reason was that, the nation wanted to rely on potential medal winners rather than numbers.
However, a GAAA source told the GNA on Tuesday that it would send not less than 10 athletes to represent the nation in Manchester. The source said much as he agrees that Vida, Margaret and Aziz are currently the nation's medal hopefuls, it would be wrong to rule other equally good ones out completely.
The association said it would rely on International Amateur Athletics Association website to access the performance of the Ghanaian athletes which are likely to be beefed up by some locals after a final trials in June.
Meanwhile as part of its programme to keep the local athletes busy, the association has been organizing series of championships. The first was at the Kumasi Sports Stadium last Friday, where Clement Agyemang of Brong Ahafo, clocked an impressive 10.5sec in the men's 100-meter race. The second event has been billed for the Accra Sports Stadium on Friday, February 15.
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