President of the Ghana Universities Sports Association Games Ibrahim Tanko Shaibu has called on corporate organizations to come on board and provide financial assistance to suppport University games in the country.
According to him, GUSA has been grappling with sponsorship from corporate institutions when it comes to competitions organized by his outfit hence the need for more support in a form of sponsorship package to aid them in the organization of competitions for students and lessen their financial woes.
This year’s cross country meet saw low funds allocated to athletes who thrived in their respective events but voluntary financial support from other individuals raised the amount to an appreciable level.
In an interview with Univers Sports after the cross country meet, President of the Ghana Universities Association games Mr. Shaibu Ibrahim Tanko commended the athletes for their impressive performance and lauded University of Ghana for coming up with such facilities to host the games.
“We started somewhere 2013 at UCC that was when we started it [cross country] but most often universities don’t have the facilities to organize it and for that matter they used the road so basically that is the reason. We [GUSA] have adopted the loop system. The performance was okay you could see that every individual was willing to die for his\her university and for that matter it made the competition highly competitive” he told Univers Sports.
Mr. Ibrahim Tanko went further to appeal to corporate organizations to collaborate with his outfit and aid them financially to improve the incentives to athletes and the organization of the games.
“I think they [corporate organizations] have to come to us or we should go to them giving the experience we had today testifies that GUSA is a large community where they will benefit and for us to also benefit” Tanko indicated
He also revealed what the association plans to do after the cross country competition.
“We shall be having championship very soon to select the team to represent Ghana at the world university games called FISU so that is our next schedule as far as GUSA is concerned’’ he indicated.
The 26th edition of the Ghana Universities Sports Association games inter-university cross country race was held at the university of Ghana on Saturday, April 1 2023.
Team performance
In the male category, hosts University of Ghana defended their trophy after garnering 60 points with University of Education Winneba coming second with 70 points.
University of Cape coast finished third with 85 points whiles AAMUSTED took the fourth position with 133 points.
In the female category, University of Cape Coast triumphed after amassing 42 points, followed by University of Education with 96 points.
University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) were third with 124 points and hosts University of Ghana finished fourth with 127 points.
Individual performance
Three-time champion William Amponsah of University of Education Winneba maintained his first position after seeing off a stiff competition from University of Ghana’s Ishmael Arthur who finished second for the male category.
With the female, Lariba Juliana Sakat of UEW finished with 35 minutes 52 seconds and UG’s Naomi Addo came second with 37 minutes 59 seconds.
Joana Asiaw Yaaba of UCC was third with 33 minutes 46 seconds and in fourth position was UG’s Rosemary Arthur who finished at a time of 35 minutes 6 seconds.
