Minister of Sports and Recreation Kofi Adams has responded sharply to criticisms regarding the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the African Senior Athletics Championships’ involvement in the handful of broken pole vaults at the competition.
The 24th edition of the championships took place in Ghana at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium where Ghana finished with zero gold medals and finished 17th on the medal table.
The Championships was rocked by several challenges including alleged food rationing and inadequate logistics including erratic power supply.
Another issue that made the headlines was three pole vault athletes having their vaults snap in the middle of the competition that raised serious safety concerns.
Speaking to reporters, Kofi Adams dismissed the claim that the LOC was to blame for the incidents by stating,
“The event generally went well, we had a few challenges at the start with power to be able to power some of the equipment but later all that was resolved. We witnessed some athletes’ whose vaulting poles broke but people thought that those vaulting poles were provided by Ghana, NO.”
Another scary moment as Ivorian Huys Nicholas also had his pole snap mid-air during the men’s pole vault event.#JoySports pic.twitter.com/mALI5urWTF
— #JoySports (@JoySportsGH) May 13, 2026
“Every athlete who took part in the pole vault came with their own vaulting poles. The vaulting poles provided by the LOC was not used and it’s a standard thing. The vaulting poles…are equipment that the athletes normally bring because they want to compete with what they are comfortable with.
