Ghana has surpassed Botswana with 9 votes to stage the 2026 Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Seniors Championships.
Ghana won the bid by a wide margin, receiving 12 votes, while Botswana managed to secure only 3 votes, from 15 countries that cast their ballots.
Ghana Athletics announced on X formerly twitter on Saturday, June 22, adding that the event will be held in Accra.
Also, speaking to Graphic online, President of Ghana Athletics, Bawa Fuseini revealed how Ghana secured the rights to host the event, beating its counterpart in a closely contested bid process.
During the first council meeting, Ghana and Botswana were encouraged to put in their bids. After an emergency consultation with the Deputy Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Abdul-Majeed Bawa and the Minister of Youth and Sports, Ussif Mustapha, approval was given for us to put in the bid.
I did and last night, we were informed that we will be required to make presentations before the Executive Council. With the support of the vice president of Ghana Athletics, Charles Osei Assibey and the Deputy DG, I made the presentation after Botswana had also made theirs.
it came down to voting and Ghana won the majority to host the 2026 continental athletics championships,” he explained.
After successfully hosting the 2023 African Games and CAA Region II Seniors Championships at the prestigious University of Ghana Stadium, The Confederation of African Athletics invited Ghana to bid for hosting the 2026 African Championship.
We have already started getting requests from the Confederation of African Athletics to bid for the 2026 African Athletics Championships.
When they came, what they saw, I was told that for the last 20 years, they’ve never seen any organization like this before.
We did three official course. And the last one, we had 110, all of them passed.
We have a lot of officials.We have a lot of equipment.We have three sets of equipment,” President of Ghana Athletics, Bawa Fuseini told Channel 1 Tv.
The hosting baton passes to Cameroon this year, with the prestigious event scheduled to take place at the Olémbé Stadium in Yaoundé.
However, since the inception of the African Athletics Championships in 1979, Ghana has never hosted the event.
story by: Gabriel Tecco Mensah | univers.ug.edu.gh
