The 2023 edition of the University of Ghana @75 staff games commenced on Thursday, July 20, 2023 and concluded on Friday, July 21, 2023 at the Athletic oval with University of Ghana Sports Directorate emerging as the overrall champions with college of health sciences winning the football component of the competition.
The games finally resumed after a four-year wait with the last edition back in 2019 with the games cutting across all sporting disciplines ranging from oware, ludo, ampe, chess, draughts musical chairs, lime and spoon, volleyball, athletics and football.
In oware, ORID came 1st ,UGLS 2nd and Sports Directorate finished 3rd. In Ludo, UGLS in 1st position, Security in 2nd and COE in 3rd .CHS took 1st position in the Ampe, CEBAS 2nd and Registry in 3rd . Table Tennis Sports Directorate took 1st position, PDMSD 2nd and CHS 3rd. In Lime and spoon CEBAS took 1st position, UGCS 2nd and Registry 3rd . Musical chairs had Sports Directorate 1st CHS 2nd ORID 3rd.
The games begun to take shape on the 2nd and final day thus friday with a health walk led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Nana Aba Appiah Amfo and other dignitaries from the university management.
The Vice Chancellor during her address at the gathering admonished her fellow staff members to actively partake in aerobics to enable them stay healthy and keep their bodies in good shape.
“It has been fun and exciting particularly have the opportunity to burn some calories this morning, being able to do the walk with you and the aerobics. I saw that some of the bones are stiff ,we need to be doing so more often”.
She further urged the UG Sports Directorate to continue organizing the games annually for staff members to showcase their sporting prowess.
“We need to make changes to our lifestyle, incorporate exercises into us ,so Director of Sports you have my full backing ,once we have resumed let us not go back ,let us not break ,annually let us have the staff games to stretch ourselves and to encourage us all to do this on a more regular basis” Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo stressed.
The Vice Chancellor got into her sporting mood as she took to the field in the 60m dash leaving her competitors and spectators in awe as she crossed the finishing line in an astonishing time of 14sec.
The Center of attraction was in the Football competition where the University of Ghana Basic School faced College of Health Science in the final game of the competition with the game ending in a stalemate.
The match went straight into penalty shootout with University of Ghana Basic School beating College of Health Sciences by three goals to one.
The best was yet to come as there was extreme mayhem when Director of sports, Dr Bella Bello Bitigu made a pronouncement in favour of College of Health Science’s following an appeal against University of Ghana Basic School for fielding an unqualified player who was active from the preliminary stages through to the semi final.
Upon their complaints and investigations, the jury chaired by the Director of Sports annulled the outcome which stripped University Basic School of the title after being found culpable for fielding an unqualified player.
The regulations for the staff games does not permit an intern to partake in the games, the victim was an intern hence does not meet the requirement of permanent staff, temporary staff or National Service personnel as stipulated.
The College of Health Science team and department were thrown into raptures as they had picked up the ultimate football crown and added to their overall Gold medals in the competition.
Below is the positions of the various colleges on the medal table:
15 )College of Humanities -0 medals
14 ) UG Health Services -1 bronze
14)College of Education-1 bronze
12)Registry -2 bronze
11) Hall of residence – 3 bronze
10) PDMSD – 2 silver
9) University of Ghana Library Services- 3 silver
8 ) UGCS – 1 gold 1 silver
8) UGSC – 1 gold 1 silver
6)ORID – 1 gold 1 silver 1 bronze
5) University of Ghana Basic School- 1 gold 2 silver
5) Security-1 gold 2 silver
3) CEBAS- 2 gold 1 silver 3 bronze
2) College Of Health Sciences – 3 gold 1 silver 1 bronze
1) UG Sports Directorate -5 gold 1 silver 1 bronze
Story By: Andrews Sefa Bamfo
