Hammond and Donkor qualify for World U20 Athletics Championship

Two Ghanaian Athletes,  Solomon Kweku Hammond and Solomon Donkor have qualified for the World U20 Athletics Championship after winning the men’s 100m and 200m race with times of 10:53sec and 21.12sec at the just ended Confederation Of Africa Athletics Region ll Championship at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium.

Kweku Hammond is a product of the Willie Williams Memorial Foundation which has been discovering and grooming potential top athletes in Ghana.

James Thompson, organiser of the Foundation said he is impressed with the performance of Hammond and they are training more athletes like they did for Aziz Zakari, Ben Azamati and others.

The three day event saw West African countries including Host Ghana, Niger, Sierra Leone Burkina Faso, Senegal, Liberia, Cote dIvoire and Togo competing for medals in the Confederation of African Athletics Championship.

The event also served  as qualification to the World U20 Athletics Championship which is slated for Cali,  Colombia on August 2.

The Ghana Athletics team won 44 medals that comprised 26 Gold, 13 silver and 5 bronze medals, to lead the medal table.

Burkina Faso  dominated the field events and came second with 37 medals –  16 Gold, 14 silver and 7 Bronze medals., Côte d’Ivoire finished third  winning 23 medals.

Mr. Afalebeik Ababu, President Of The Ghana Athletics Association expressed delight at the organization and performances.

“The athletes who competed are the ones we selected through our circuit championships and open Championship and so I am e cited that, they are all student and their performing well and when we keep them together as a team and camp them, they will be able to do better than what they have done. But we are very impressed with their performance in this tournament  This tells us Athletics is not dead as some people are portraying” he told the media.

By Sammy Heywood Okine