A new frontier for Ghana sports
Ghana sports has been given an opportunity to put its name back on the map with the first ever African Beach Games slated for the island of Cape Verde from June 14 to 23.
SAL 2019 is the first ever game of its kind anywhere in the world and Africa is the proud host continent with several countries expected to participate in the two- week tournament based solely on sand. According to the press officer for team Ghana, Baaba Tando, a final list of athletes along with the confirmed disciplines would be submitted to the organizers in the coming days.
The host city, SAL, has been selected because Cape Verde intends to launch its international tourism campaign using sports as an attraction.
Beach Soccer would be the headline of a total of 11 disciplines to be staged at the tournament. The other sports include beach volley, beach handball, open water swimming, coastal rowing, karate kata, freestyle football, kiteboarding and new sports such as beach tennis, beach basketball and beach athletics.
The games which are under the Ghana Olympic Committee supervision has given Ghana the opportunity to present at most 85 athletes cutting across the 11 selected disciplines for the tournament.
The GOC has had a series of meetings with the heads of the various sports federations to put in place a strategic preparation schedule for the tournament as well as decide which disciplines Ghana would participate in during the tournament.
It is imperative that Ghana puts its best foot forward to afford the nation medal opportunities at the games.
Sal, one of the 10 islands of the Cape Verde archipelago situated 460km due west of Senegal, is an island of year-round sun, blue azure sea and vast white sand beaches. It is these features that made the island the perfect location for the 1st African Beach Games.