FLASHBACK: The previous Accra marathon
Dansoman Keep Fit Club, organisers of the annual Accra Marathon, have disclosed that the much-awaited marathon is set to return in September this year after a six-year break.
The marathon, which is considered one of the best in Africa, has not been organised in the past six years due to sponsorship challenges after Milo withdrew its sponsorship.
But Chairman of the Club, Benjamin Ahulu, has disclosed that arrangements are being made for the marathon which is scheduled for September.
“The Accra Marathon has been missed for years. We have not done the Accra Marathon for six years because we had challenges with the sponsorship. But this year we have done a lot of arrangements and God willing, Accra Marathon will happen in September,” Ahulu disclosed.
He was speaking at the swearing in ceremony of newly elected executives of Dansoman Keep Fit Club in Accra.
He used the occasion to call on government and corporate entities to support the marathon, stressing that sports unites the country.
“Accra Marathon is back, it is going to put Dansoman Keep Fit Club on the map of Ghana again. I am appealing to the corporate world to come in and support the Accra Marathon because sports is a unifier, it brings peace and it brings people together,” he added.
Ahulu also used the occasion to call on the leadership of the club to be dedicated in order to achieve the aims of the club, which was the first fitness club to be established in 1983.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected the operations of the club, but that notwithstanding, they have been able to achieve some of their targets, which include the expansion of the sporting facility and also registering more members.
“Some of the inactive members, we have been able to bring them back, we have been able to enhance the sporting facilities that we have here. Now we have an arrangement with the Assembly and we are building a tennis court, and I promise you in the next six months, when you come here we will have a tennis court,” Ahulu added.
The event coincided with the 96th birthday of Kofi Kakraba Amissah Yankson, a founding member and former chairman of the club.
He urged the members to be disciplined, devoted, and dedicated, while calling on the leadership to always maintain the key core values behind the formation of the club, which is ‘growth strives on discipline’.
The new executives of the club are Benjamin Ahulu, Chairman; Laud Thompson, Vice Chairman; Viktor Vanderpuije, Secretary; Erica Appiah, Assistant Secretary; Juliana Ejimmandus, Treasurer; Amanda Dwamena-Akenten, Assistant Treasurer; Emmanuel Abuga-Williams, Financial Secretary.
The rest are Isaac Yaotey Ako Jr., Public Relations Officer; Harriet Yankey, Women’s Organiser; Dr. Kamar-Udeen Lat, Men’s Organiser; Dorcas Doku, Welfare Officer; Solomon Quao, General Service Officer and Jerry Kwabena Andoh, Youth Organiser.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak