The members of the Ghana Hockey Association have accepted the continued leadership of Ben K D Asante for the next four years by popular acclamation.
The process of acclamation took place at the Theodosia Okoh National Hockey Pitch.
Dr Asante, who doubles as the chairman of the Citizens International Hockey Club, urged members of the association to rally behind hockey and strive to seek sponsorship for the association.
Elizabeth King, the association’s vice-president, also went unopposed.
“On behalf of the board, I want to thank you all for the support for the last four years. It’s been an exciting journey with ups and downs,” Dr Asante said.
“Our commitment towards funding should be looked at. Our development agenda has remained the same but our funding has not reached the mark that can help us execute all our plans,” he said.
“We still remain committed to develop our facilities and equipment, and also looking at our pillar number two, which is developing our personnel – not just the players, but rather the coaches and technical officials – because we’re far behind.”
Asante however said that the association’s funding commitment has been a problem. The main means for purchasing equipment, training coaches and enabling players to play in competitions has not been forthcoming, he noted.
Successful host
The other members of the GHA’s leadership are Kwame Owusu, Albert Ofori (honorary treasurer), Frank Oti-Mensah and Grace Ankomah. All stood unopposed and there are two executive members of the association.
The Ghana Hockey Association has successfully hosted two major international tournaments – the African Cup of Club Champions (ACCC) and Africa Cup of Nations (ACN), in November 2021 and January 2022, respectively.
In the ACCC, two women’s clubs from Ghana were successful: GRA Ladies won gold and Prisons Ladies bronze. None of the men’s teams made it to the medal zone.
In the ACN, Ghana hosted 15 participating teams from Egypt, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Ghana’s female team sailed through to the finals but lost to South Africa, winning silver. The Black Stiks placed fifth in the men’s category.
Subsequent to these tournaments and rankings, the men’s and women’s national teams qualified to take part in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom, placing tenth in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
On infrastructure, four new water-based artificial turfs have been installed, with support from Dr Asante as president of the Ghana Hockey Association. The association acquired turfs and accessories to build three new pitches at KNUST, the University of Ghana and the University of Cape Coast, as well as renovate the national hockey stadium.
In human resources developments after the first four years under the executives, the Ghana Hockey Association has birthed a number of Fédération Internationale de Hockey (FIH) officials and umpires who get appointments to international tournaments or who represent Ghana.
The likes of Frank Oti-Mensah, Isaac Graham, Dr Bayitse, Joyce Datsa, Aziz Adimah, Cynthia Clement, George Roland, Agatha Hagan, Kwabena Asante, Quagraine Kofi, Ebenezer Nortey and many young people have had international appointments.
Coaches, trainers and officials have all benefited under Dr Asante’s leadership.
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