The president of the African Paralympic committee, Samson Deen, has disclosed that Ghana’s prospects of hosting a successful tournament are unaffected by some countries’ decision to pull out of the forthcoming 2023 African Paralympic Games in Accra.
His comment comes on the back of some countries withdrawing their participation in some of the events for the upcoming 2023 African Paralympic games due to the unreadiness of some facilities to host the event.
He also revealed that out of the 48 countries expected to partake in the games, the number of countries have whittled down to 22 due to the withdrawal of 26 countries from the competition.
President of the African Paralympic committee believes that the withdrawal of these countries will not undermine Ghana’s hopes of hosting a successful event with construction of the facilities still in progress.
“We had 48 nations endorsing to participate in the African para games, out of the 48 nations today we will be having only 22 to participate in the African para games. The reasons for the exclusion is, today as we speak Ghana cannot host a multi sports international event but we pray and hope that by December Ghana can boast of having the needed facilities to host an international multi sports event. Why do I say this? We currently do not have a complete facility available. We do not have a stadium that can take care of athletics and all the accoutrements and all the needed facilities around to stage an international event for such nature”. Samson Deen opined
The Borteyman sports complex and the University of Ghana Stadium will be the venues for the games. Construction works are still ongoing at the Borteyman Sports Complex with the University of Ghana stadium nearing completion at a 70% stage.
The African Paralympic Games will be hosted in Ghana the same year as the African Games, making 2023 the first time a continental Paralympic competition has been held in Africa.
Story by: Rashad Usman Sinah
