Author: Sammy Heywood Okine
Hon. Jerry Ahmed Shaib, President of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF) and Member of Parliament for Weija – Gbawe on Wednesday commissioned the newly renovated National Weightlifting Training Center at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Hon. Ahmed commended members of the Federation for their commitment to the sport and emphasized the importance of the renovations.
“As many of you know, this gym has not been operational for close to a year now as it underwent much-needed renovations to upgrade its facilities and equip the place for current use.”
“Today, we are not just here to celebrate the reopening of a physical space, but to celebrate a vision—a vision of growth, progress, and success for the sport of weightlifting in Ghana.”
Beyond serving Ghana’s national weightlifters, Jerry Shaib emphasized that the center will also be open to international athletes and play a crucial role in promoting weightlifting as a mainstream sport in the country.
“The key objective of the training center is to provide better training facilities for Ghanaian weightlifters and also colleagues from other nationalities who might want to come into the country to train. We also want to nurture young ones in weightlifting, enhance Ghana’s competitiveness in international weightlifting competitions, and finally, promote weightlifting as a sport and a lifestyle in the country” he added.
The facility had been non-operational for nearly a year and the significant upgrade will enhance training conditions for the athletes.
Present was the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Mr. Ben Nunoo Mensah who said Ghana is rated fifth in African Weightlifting and urged the youth to join the sport.
Also known as Nii Kojo Ashiefie Papanyira I, the former president of the GWF said weightlifting is one of the disciplines that can give the nation more medals at international sports competition as one athlete can win many medals.
The new Minister of Sports and Recreation, Hon. Kofi Adams was also in attendance to support the President of the Federation.
