Athletes Set for World University Games

By John Vigah

Ghana is putting finishing touches to their preparations ahead of this year's 30th World University Games in Italy.

The 11-day 17-discipline event roars off from Wednesday, July 3 to Sunday July 14 in the city of Napoli.

Ghana's 12-member team, which consists of eight males and four females, is presently camping at the University of Ghana Campus, Legon - and will be participating solely in athletics.

The athletes are Benjamin Azarmati (100m and 4x100m), Sarfo Ansah (100m, 200m and 4x100m), Wallace Aflamah (200m and 4x100m), Barnabas Aggerh (100m and 4x100m), Etiam Koku (400m and 4x400m), Baba Seidu (400m, 400m and 4x400m), Razak (400m and 4x400m) and Neehyi (400m and 4x400m).

The rest are Kate Agyemang (100m, 200m and 4x100m), Latifa (100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m), Salomey Adjei (800m, 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m) and Rafiatu Nuhu (400m, 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m).

Sources say the athletes were selected based on their superb performance in the mini Ghana Universities Sports Association (GUSA) Games held in Cape Coast in January, this year.

Tertiary institutions which contested for the games included University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Education, (UEW) the University for Development Studies (UDS), and the University of Ghana (UG).

The rest were the University of Mines and Technology (UMAT), University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) among others.

UCC emerged as overall winners - garnering a total of 20 gold, 11 silver and six bronze medals.

Meanwhile, one of the medal prospects for the Napoli Games, Aflamah, told the Times Sports yesterday that the athletic team were determined to do their very best to ensure they return home with some pride.

"We're training very hard and believe we're going to come back to Ghana with our heads held high," asserted Aflamah, who is a second year UDS student, studying Development in Education.

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