Ghana to camp in US for London 2012 Olympics

Ghana’s National Athletics team will commence camping in the United States of America (USA) in April as part of preparations towards the 2012 London Olympic Games.

The camp, which is expected to provide members of the team the opportunity to train with modern facilities in a bid to enhance their time ahead of the competition, is expected to start in April and end in May.

Information gathered by GNA Sports reveals that the team whilst camping in USA, will engage in other competitions and trials to make the international time set for qualification for the Olympic Games.

Currently, 47 athletes are embarking on a non-residential camping and the technical team is expected to prune down the list before embarking on the USA camp.

Coach Albert Nukpezah of the National Athletics team, told the GNA Sports that only 14 athletes will be selected from the huge number for the USA camping.

He said that the athletes will be joined by their foreign based colleagues for the final camping in USA.

According to the coach, the officials would be working on the times of the athletes as some of them have to make the international standards necessary for the competition.

He stated that the Men’s Relay team is 13th in the world which qualifies them for the Olympics but added they must engage in more competitions to either improve upon their position or maintain it.

“Countries that participate in the Relay races must be among the first 16 in the world and we must protect our current position to enable us participate in the Olympics by engaging in more competitions”. The coach stated.

Fuseini Bawa, General Secretary of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) said Ghana will participate in the Africa Senior Championship in Benin and the National Grand Prix in Ghana before the July 8 date, which is the deadline for making the time for the London 2012 Olympics.

Source: GNA