The Communications Director for the Ghana Cycling Federation, Dennis Moore has expressed frustration over the Sports Minister’s recent comments blaming the Federation for not cooperating with the Ministry regarding the supply of cycling equipment for the 13th African Games.
Moore highlighted that the Federation had indeed provided the required equipment lists in response to requests from the Chef de Mission’s office in July and November 2023.
Despite this compliance, the Federation alleges they did not receive the complete equipment package, leading to shortages during both training and the competition itself.
Moore told Citi Sports in an interview, that it was imperative on the Ministry’s part to get its facts right before making its public statements.
I think that we issued to the committee two weeks ago, and you can actually see, see and tell that by the silence of those groups without the committee, it tells you that the Federation is on point.And we have actually come up to clear the air once and for all.And all that was brought up about was not true, it wasn’t true at all, from the Ministry.So we actually wanted to hear from the Minister, you know, the first thing that I was asking myself was the who is feeding the Minister.Who is breafing the Minister? Well, you know, it’s not the Minister. But who is breafing the Minister? That’s the problem, you know. So before you come out, we set the allegations, make sure you have the tracks for the issues.
Well, we have come out as a communication entity for the formation, and now we have actually silenced everyone who was thinking otherwise. So we are very much happy. We are happy to work with the Ministry’s hand in hand moving forward.
But in the future, they really need to get more back into the issue before they come out officially.
Abigail Tetteh, a Ghanaian female cyclist revealed that her self-funded bicycle was not in good shape to allow her to compete.
According to Tetteh, the team had to fund their bicycles and purchase aluminium bikes, which were not as effective as the fibre bikes used by other countries.
Tetteh and three other Ghanaian cyclists were unable to complete the women’s race due to inadequate equipment.
National champion Michael Naabas’s situation was even worse as his bicycle broke down during a race. The tube connected to his bike exploded forcing him to pull out of the race while denying Team Ghana the possibility of securing a medal.