Outspoken former President of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), Mr George Haldane Lutterodt has questioned the rationale behind government’s support to athletes at the ongoing IAAF World Championship in London.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) through the National Sports Authority (NSA) gave Ghana’s nine member contingent $84,900 for their participation in the event but no athlete went pass their first heat.
But according to Mr Lutterodt, the money given to the team made up of foreign-based athletes could be used to develop the grassroots and grow [ads1]home -based athletes.
“We cannot as a nation solely rely on athletes in foreign countries and refuse to nurture and grow home- based athletes,” he stated.
He has therefore called for a Presidential intervention to save the sport from total collapse after another poor show at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in London.
He noted that due to poor structures put in place the current administration led by Prof. Francis Dodoo, it has forced many of the country’s good athletes to go on early retirement naming Aziz Zakari, Margaret Simpson and Vida Anim.
He objected to the idea of sending athletes to the United States and other countries in the name of training and stated that all must be done at home as much as possible.
Mr Lutterodt described Ghana’s recent performances in athletics in any major international events as a disaster which keeps occurring, and called for an urgent dispassionate intervention to solve the problem.
