Tag: africa sports

Birmingham, England, August 7, 2022

2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: HOW COMMONWEALTH GAMES DEBUTANT ALPHOUS AND TORNYENYOR GRADUATED FROM GHANA BADMINTON’S SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

Many will not have come to terms with how two Ghanaian professional Badminton athletes, Cindy Etornam Tornyenyor and Kelvin Evans Alphous, ended up at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham competing in Singles and Doubles Event for Badminton.

Having reflected from a 2017 journey for Kelvin Evans Alphous, where he began his badminton career in his Senior Secondary School days at the Swedru School of Business led by the late Ebenezer Affaidu as his Coach. Ebenezer Affaidu was a Badminton Coach from the Shuttle Time Course in 2017/2018 under the Ghana Badminton Schools Project, educating and training teachers across the country.

In 2019, Alphous took part in national events and graduated onwards through national team selections, climbing on a part of growth towards his Commonwealth and Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification.

Alphous shared, “I can’t believe I am playing on a high level with some of the world’s advanced players. It’s a dream come true from me, and I am excited about it. In between the Olympics, there is nothing compared to the Commonwealth Games. It holds a special place in our sports ecosystem. The Games exposed me to big championships and multi-sport events. Coming from a village near Agona Swedru is a privilege, and this will inspire me to do more in my sports career.”

The programme graduated 273 Physical Education Teachers from 198 Schools nationwide in 2017, mastering a whopping coverage of schools nationwide. The current Board launched the second phase of the Mission 2025 Plan in 2022, focussing on sustaining and building long-term growth is getting schools to embrace badminton.

Cindy Tornyenyor Shared, “Never saw me be here, in Birmingham, England, competing with the world’s best. I watch players and frequently matches on TV and YouTube, and I am glad it feels rekindling like ages ago. Still, I will use that experience gained here and hopefully carry on with the scholarship that Ghana Badminton gave me to continue to shine at the international level.”

Ghana Badminton, President shares, “We are enthralled by our enhanced development initiatives across technical and coaching education spanning from a school’s project we implemented promoting a thriving sporting system of inspiring positive change thus creating most tremendous decade success of extraordinary sporting achievement by the end of 2027.

Right from 2017, the development team for Badminton in Ghana had partnered with various stakeholders in Ghana and across Africa under the guidance of the Badminton World Federation to ensure that students in both secondary and primary schools participate in activities related to the Badminton sport. The Schools projects are entry-level schools and programs for the school’s club Badminton, graduating into inter-schools, super zonal and the national schools and colleges competition.

The project course educates coaches on how to instil badminton lessons in children aged between 6 to 15 years in a fun and safe way. Participants gain basic knowledge in the coaching of Badminton, enabling physical Education and community club coaches to learn and teach beginning athletes of the sport to graduate toward podium results on the world stage.

The National Federation in Ghana is working on getting Badminton offered for young people in 512 additional community venues and being played in 3,212 more schools -primary, secondary, and tertiary (teacher training, universities, etc.) by 2025 and providing a new school-club link programme that will offer a sustainable partnership with all schools.

Ranked 185 in the World Juniors ranking, Cindy Etornam Tornyenyor also graduated from the school’s programme in 2018. Having attended West Africa Senior High School and led into Badminton by Mr Emmanuel Otoo of Adenta Badminton Club, her pivotal journey of Badminton began in this endeavour, causing spiral training and focus on the national level.

In 2019, Cindy Etornam Tornyenyor continued and represented the Greater Accra Region at the National Schools and Colleges, Bolgatanga sports and achieved podium results. Tornyenyor laments her best role model is to be in the World’s top 50 ranked players by 2027 from now and make Ghana Badminton proud again in the Women’s Single and Women’s Double events.

Nothing compared to this year’s Commonwealth Games brings memories of how our Badminton in Schools project, which aggressively started in 2017, has survived, and we are progressively reaching out to each school in Ghana. Ghana Badminton made its seventh appearance at the Commonwealth Games after its debut in the 1998 Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ghana competed in Athletes, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Judo, Beach Volleyball, Aquatics, Squash, Triathlon, Table Tennis, Weightlifting, Hockey and 2 Para Sporting Disciplines, with Boxing winning 2 Silver and one Bronze medals and athletics, winning 2 Bronze for Ghana.

The Commonwealth Games is a multi-sport event with a fully integrated programme of para-sports disciplines, and this year’s Games was extra unique with packed stadiums and arenas after Tokyo 2020 took place behind closed doors. Birmingham 2022 had the largest female and para-sports programme in history after a new discipline of Women’s T20 Cricket, Beach Volleyball, and Para Table Tennis were confirmed.

ENDS

About Ghana Badminton

We are Ghana Badminton, the Governing Body of Badminton in Ghana, formed in 1962. We are the supreme national sports governing body with regulatory functions for the Olympic Sport of Badminton in Ghana. We do this by preparing and implementing a vision and strategic plan for the national sport and determining how it will be implemented nationally, regionally, and locally.

With Olympic success at the heart of our ambitions, we are investing our knowledge and expertise in rebuilding build a quality future for our sport by strengthening and developing the domestic game and developing talent to achieve success on the international stage, inspiring the next generation of players and local fans and corporate community in line with the global vision of giving every child a chance to play for life by leading and inspire all stakeholders; to deliver entertainment through exciting events to drive fan experience; and to create innovative, impactful and sustainable development initiatives.
With thousands of Ghanaians playing yearly, badminton looks forward to being the nation’s favourite racket sport by 2024. We want to inspire everyone to play more, support louder and love badminton, from this generation to the next, as the world’s fastest racket sport.
Get Involved!

Websites: www.ghanabadminton.org

Facebook:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BadmintonGhana

July 18, 2022-TEAM GHANA ANNOUNCES BADMINTON TEAM SET TO COMPETE AT 2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES.

Nantuo Prospera celebrates a point at the African Championship

The Ghana Badminton Association (BAG) has officially named its squad for the upcoming 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

The team includes several high-performance players in the National Federation’s 2024 High-Performance Programme.

The six-man team of four men and two women would compete in all five events of Badminton at the Games.

Coach Moses Adu, Ahmed Abdul Samad, Kelvin Evans Alphous (Captain), Cindy Esi Etornam Tornyenyor, Prospera Nantuo, and Aaron Dromo Tamakloe will lead the players to represent the National Badminton Team-Golden Shuttlers and capitalize on the once in a lifetime opportunity to bring home success in our own country.

After the national selection criteria, Linked here the Badminton players that will represent Team Ghana across Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles Events are:

NANTUO, Prospera, Upper East Region–Nantuo has been holding her own on the Doubles and Mixed Doubles. It crowned championships across Africa in recent years and had been Ghana’s National champion at age 21. She hopes to make her mark at her first multi-sport Games, and she will make her Team Ghana debut.

TORNEYNOR, Esi Cindy, Volta Region–Cindy, has built a badminton history of her own, having won the National Doubles event in 2018 and represented Ghana internationally in Mix Team Events.

ALPHOUS, Kelvin Evans, Central Region–Alphous will aim for a run at a Commonwealth medal after his Mix and Men Doubles partnership with Ahmad Samad and Prospera Nantuo caught fire in its first entire season since 2018. Four years after playing together, the pair took home gold medals in international events. He is the raining Men and Mix Doubles National record title.

AHMAD Abdul Samad, Northern Region–As one of the most experienced Golden shuttlers in Ghana, Samad will aim to build on the Men Singles Achievement-The highly African-ranked Men’s Doubles and Men’s Singles Player building on the success of his Men’s Doubles highly world ranked

Samuel Lamptey-Greater Accra Region- Known for remarkable experiences in Men’s Doubles, the former National Doubles Circuit Silver Medalist, will look forward to brewing in confidence after an excellent performance in African tournaments. Together with his pair, an incredible performance will brew in their play.

TAMAKLOE, Dromo Aaron-Greater Accra Region–Having won match events at his maiden African Championships in November 2021 and made his bow in the same season, Tamakloe-now has a chance to shine at the Multi-Sport Games in Mix and Men Singles Events-One of the most successful Ghana shuttlers of the modern era and has reached the top of the three in two doubles events.

Speaking on her excitement about being part of the team, Cindy shared, “It’s such a glorious honour to be part of Team Ghana, and I can’t wait to get out there and do my very best at the Games with support from the nation, friends, and family!”

Regarding coaching, Head Coach, Moses Adu, added, “I feel incredibly proud to lead on the success of our high-performance plan with its coaching opportunity at a multi-sport level, and we will do the nation proud.”

Hoping to continue our seventh Appearance at the Commonwealth Games success, the Ghana Badminton President shared, “The Commonwealth Games is a very notable event for all of us in Ghana Badminton and the Board and all persons of the sport. Our squad is a blend of youth and experience, but all very talented players and highly world-ranked. We are highly optimistic of success in this endeavour as our long-term athlete development plan, with its success, is bringing the needed performance results across the country’s sporting popularity. We are also elated to be guided by Prof Oluwaseun O. Omotoyo, the Head of the Department of Sports and Exercise Medical Sciences (SEMS), University of Health & Allied Sciences, Ho, for his eminence as a renowned World Sports psychologist for our team.”

Ghana Badminton Association would be making their seventh appearance at the Commonwealth Games after their debut in the 1998 Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

You can be part of the team by following our social channels, where each athlete will perform in Birmingham. Ghana Badminton will compete from July 30th- August 8th, 2022, at the NEC Hall, Birmingham, after an initial 6-day training camp in the United Kingdom.

Ghana competes in Athletes, Badminton, Boxing, Cycling, Judo, Beach Volleyball, Aquatics, Squash, Triathlon, Table Tennis, Weightlifting, Hockey and 3 Para Sporting Disciplines.

The Commonwealth Games is a multi-sport event with a fully integrated programme of para-sport disciplines. This year’s Games promises to be extra special, with packed stadiums and arenas after Tokyo 2020 took place behind closed doors. Birmingham 2022 is set to have the most significant female and para-sport programme in history after a new discipline of Women’s T20 Cricket, Beach Volleyball and Para Table Tennis was confirmed.

ENDS

About Ghana Badminton

We are Ghana Badminton, the Governing Body of Badminton in Ghana, formed in 1962. We are the supreme national sports governing body with regulatory functions for Ghana’s Olympic Sport of Badminton. We do this by preparing and implementing a vision and strategic plan for the national sport and determining how it will be implemented nationally, regionally, and locally.

With Olympic success at the heart of our ambitions, we are investing our knowledge and expertise in rebuilding build a quality future for our sport by strengthening and developing the domestic game and developing talent to achieve success on the international stage, inspiring the next generation of players and local fans and corporate community in line with the global vision of giving every child a chance to play for life by leading and inspire all stakeholders; to deliver entertainment through exciting events to drive fan experience; and to create innovative, impactful and sustainable development initiatives.
With thousands of Ghanaians playing yearly, badminton looks forward to being the nation’s favourite racket sport by 2024. We want to inspire everyone to play more, support louder and love badminton, from this generation to the next, as the world’s fastest racket sport.
Get Involved!

Websites: www.ghanabadminton.org

Facebook:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BadmintonGhana

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.Psalm 116:15 NIV

Be with us in repeating the words of stanzas 1 and 2 of MHB 647:

Lord, it belongs not to my care

Whether I die or live:

To love and serve thee is my share, and this thy grace must give.

Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before;

He that into God’s kingdom comes must enter by this door.

It is an honour to write this tribute to Ebenezer Affaidu —a friend, colleague, player, teacher, coach, educational administrator, husband, father, and son to the national governing body of the sport of Badminton in Ghana. In our opulence role we knew him, from whatever vantage point, he stood apart as someone special!

The national body of the sport of Badminton first encountered him, at the mid-stage of his career in education and sports administration some thirty years ago, at the University of Cape Coast with our foremost Rev Graham of Agona Abodom Methodist Church. His special leadership abilities and charismatic personality were readily apparent! Our first encounter with him marked the beginning of our longstanding professional friendship and badminton collaboration and enabled coaching for his players at Swedru School of Business to nurture an intent of establishing a Badminton Court at Ajumako Mando, in the Central Region of Ghana. He was passionate about enabling schools to become better places for students to learn and for players to technically believe and practice the sport of Badminton at the world level. This passion for nostalgia was even led by one of his badminton players that he coached to reach the enviable stage of the 2022 Commonwealth Games just this summer in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The unifying force that brought Ebenezer Affaidu to the sport is also critical for his vision of being human as a place where people, cultures and ideas meet and flourish. It is this unifying potential and excellence that he has taught us to harness sports’ ability to be an agent of social change and to shape our societies and world for good. As the national governing body of the sport, we already know, of course, how much individual sports – and athletes – were doing in this area.

Mr Affaidu was a veteran of the sport of Badminton, having led its promotion and development of the sport the last three decades in the central region of Ghana, teaching the sport in schools, craving and budding young lads was his passion-some of whom playing in the national Badminton Team. He also led our Badminton in Schools Shuttle Time Project in the Central Region have taken part in our maiden 2018 Shuttle Time Coaching Education initiatives.

We have lost a huge person to our sport – and all of you here – that you have long recognized sport’s wider responsibility to society and its ability to drive social change, which Affaidu teaches us at all times-even to the extent of dying on the sport. Although much too short, his, was a life well lived! He was a determined, visionary, collaborative, goal-oriented, caring person who loved life and all that it offered and a transformational leader and change agent who had great dreams of what sport could be for his society. He had a gift of innovative thinking, a visionary spirit, and the tenacious patience required to successfully lead meaningful sports reforms.

His many awards and public recognitions even during his university days reveal that this was a distinguished sports career of considerable import! His enthusiasm for that next school project was infectious, and a huge component of his success at Ghana Badminton.

Affaidu’s biggest legacy that will preserve his memory with us is to keep a united front and work in our respective badminton communities to transform the leadership landscape in our sporting institutions towards excellent performance.

Lastly, our confidant, counsellor, and hero is no more with us. Nonetheless, we are in tandem with Martha that “he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). You danced in the midst of the storm with grace. Well done for a good job for all of us. Today, we admire and celebrate a life well lived, a desire for God worth cherishing, a generous spirit worth emulating, and a love for the family without boundaries.

Ebenezer Affaidu was Badminton. He will always be Badminton. What a man! What a spirit! What a joyous, mighty champion! We jointly say, “Da Yie. Onyankopɔn mfa wo kra nsie yie” you have done your part and – will be missed by many, but never will you be forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to have known him!

Ghana Badminton

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The countdown has begun with exciting proudness of our national glory in the 2022 Ghana’s Most Beautiful (GMB) finale on October 9, 2022. The Badminton star, Aiko, in all her 11 episodes at this year’s event.

Oti Region’s Aiko continues to stun all on 2022 Ghana’s Most Beautiful stage as she sets precedence after precedence, blazing the racket dream of every Badminton player.

Her dream sport began in our National Badminton in Schools programme at the Aburi Girls Secondary School, where she excelled in the sport, leading and playing for her school, in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Down the Tertiary Education, where she is pursuing a Doctor in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Ghana.

The Badminton Champion, captain of the Mensah Sarbah Hall Girls Team, is also looking forward to making her university proud at this year’s GUSA Games in Kumasi next month. It’s a mammoth day of celebration for all badminton lovers to cheer her to victory.

Queen Aiko is representing the Oti Region. Her maternal grandfather from the Greater Accra region once played Badminton in the army. She will look to set the stage at the National Theatre this weekend for the finals of the 2022 Ghana’s Most Beautiful event, having reached and positioned herself as the highest scoring candidate in terms of cumulative judges’ scores; and the second in the overall scores in hence, has given a clear testament of her being the ideal candidate for the crown.

Commenting on this, Aiko Adade shared “the glory of Badminton sport had set a pedestal in teaching me tolerance, love and peace for my God, country, and people. I am amazed by the support of sports enthusiasts across the world, and I look forward to your support in winning this crown to help promote the sport across the country that we all cherish.”

The badminton Star has also received 12 nominations and 5 awards to her credit at the end of all the eviction nights; the Most Eloquent and Star Performer awards in 2 nights, which was the first by anyone in the last decade of the competition. Finally, she also won the Star Performer award on the final “Justify Your Inclusion” night and got nominated for Most Eloquent.

“Our sport is expanding across the nook and cranny of the nation, expanding the role of education and sports lifestyle under our 2024 High-Performance Plan, and this notable achievement by Aiko Adade is worth emulating to support her victory this week, and I urge all of us to support her votes to promote the sport that she loves and plays across her school community- It is an inspiring story — a befitting ode to Ghana’s beauty tigress from Akpafu Odomi, who started her extraordinary journey from Aburi benefiting from our Badminton School Project.” shared Badminton President Mr Yeboah Evans.

Ghana’s Most Beautiful is a beauty pageant TV program that educates Ghanaians and the global community about the various cultural values and heritage in the sixteen (16) regions of Ghana. The program is organized by TV3 and its media partners. The pageant aims to promote development through culture and unity.

To see the beautiful Aiko winning the 2022 GMB, will unify the theme and portray the spirit of our sport. Kindly dial 71313# or download the TV3 reality app to vote for her. Don’t forget to show massive support by voting as many times as possible.

It’s what can secure her crown for our badminton family and her national pageant achievement.

ENDS

About Ghana Badminton

We are Ghana Badminton, the Governing Body of Badminton in Ghana formed in 1962. We are the supreme national sports governing body that has the regulatory function for the Olympic Sport of Badminton in Ghana. We do this by preparing and implementing a vision and strategic plan for the national sport and determining how it will be implemented at the national and international levels.

With Olympic success at the heart of our ambitions, we are investing our knowledge and expertise in rebuilding a quality future for our sport by strengthening and developing the domestic game and developing talent to achieve success on the international stage; inspiring the next generation of players and local fans and corporate community in line with the global vision of giving every child a chance to play for life by leading and inspiring all stakeholders; to deliver entertainment through exciting events to drive fan experience; and to create innovative, impactful and sustainable development initiatives.

With millions of Ghanaians playing every year, badminton is looking forward to being the nation’s favourite racket sport by 2024. We want to inspire everyone to play more, support louder and love badminton, from this generation to the next as the world’s fastest racket sport.

Get Involved!

Websites: www.ghanabadminton.org

Volta/Oti Regions welcomes Ghana Badminton’s  Coaching & Technical Officiating Course.

Ghana Badminton’s and entry-level schools invites you to the 4^th Edition of Shuttle Time Coaching & Technical Officiating Course at Ho on 09-10 December 2021.

All Physical Education Teachers and passionate individual persons interested in coaching and officiating to the highest-level in the sport badminton for your career and school.

Registration is on a first come first serve basis with only 45 participants in acceptance.

The program is organized into five sectors – Northern Sector (Tamale), Southern Sector I (Accra Sports College), Southern Sector II (Winneba Sports College), Middle Belt Sector (Kumasi), and Eastern Belt Sector (Oti/Volta/Eastern).

In 2021, three zones in nine regions-covering 70% of the Ghanaian population have been completed,  delivered and already trained 276 coaches and Technical Officials accredited and certified across the Badminton in school’s programme. Per its 2024 Strategic Plan, the Badminton Association is aiming to train a total of 600 coaches and 400 technical officials in delivering across every school and community in Ghana by Dec 2024.

The Badminton in Schools Programme is an on-court course that will teach you practical skills to plan and deliver safe and fun lessons to children in the age bracket of 5–18 in schools and community clubs. The aim of this course is to equip all participants with basic knowledge of teaching badminton and to give them the opportunity to build a career in badminton coaching. The course will also take participants through technical officiating in badminton. This prepares you to build a future professional paid career in becoming a badminton Technical Official at the world level.

To register and more information, click on the link below now! Register here:  http://99g.ghanabadminton.org/schools-programme/to confirm participation.  You are also encouraged to visit our website, www.ghanabadminton.org for all relevant material on the Badminton discipline and the upcoming tournament. A review documentary for last year’s event is available on this link.

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For further inquiries, Contact Mariam on 0546878119 or your District, School or Regional Representative

The National Para Badminton Team made a giant milestone of success for Ghana, last week by winning 1 Silver and 4 Bronze medals at the Uganda Para International Championships, the second-best result by an Africa country at the international Championships.

135 players from 18 Countries included Scotland, Russia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Benin, Brazil, Zambia, Egypt, Uganda, India, Germany, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Congo, Italy, Mozambique, France, and Canada took part in the 10-day international event.

The five Ghanaian athletes namely Mohammed Azumah Salih, Ampofo Juliana, Ampofowaa Akosua, Abubakar Adizatu, and Awudu Asana gave national and continental bravery, when they won the podium medals even to the admiration of the 60 Indian shuttlers, including Tokyo Paralympic champion Pramod Bhagat, who also won gold for his country in his event.

Abubakar Adizatu won Silver is her WD – WH 1 – WH 2 category, whilst Juliana Ampofo and Asana Awudu also won Bronze. Abubakar Adizatu again won Bronze in the Women Singles event, having faced the experienced 9^th ranked world champion Ammu Mohan from India in the semi-finals. Ampofowaa Akosua, the stalwart of the team, also won Bronze in the Mix Double category.

The international tournament also witnessed a national coaching education course for Mohammed Azumah Salih, where he also took part in a National Level 1 Classifier Workshop educational session- building up progress for Ghana to have its first para badminton certified coaching access programme.

Commenting on this achievement, the President of Ghana Badminton shared, “we are excited about this achievement from these athletes, who excelled and made Ghana proud under very difficult circumstances. The Badminton World Federation have been instrumental in this achievement by supporting these females through the Female Participation Programme since 2017, thoroughly showing us that, badminton is a sport for all, meaning that it is accessible to men and women of all ages and for people with a wide range of impairments. We will not rest on these laurels but continue to expand our Para badminton country strategy paper on Para badminton’s involvement towards 2023 African Paralympic Games and 2024 France Paralympic Games.”

We recognise para badminton as a Paralympic sport and the sport was present at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) recognises the Badminton World Federation (BWF) as the world governing body for Para badminton. Ghana Badminton promotes and develops Para badminton in the regions, including delivering a nationwide Disability Coaching Module from January 2022 as part of our coaching education programme.

Yesterday, the team made a beautiful presentation to the Ashanti Regional Sports Development Director of all the beautiful African medals won during the event.

Para badminton athletes compete in men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles, where they are classified into one of six different sport classes to ensure fairness in competition.

ENDS~

Caption: Find Pictures attached

About Ghana Badminton Association-www.ghanabadminton.org

We are Ghana Badminton, the Governing Body of Badminton in Ghana formed in 1962 and affiliated with the Badminton Confederation of Africa, International Olympic Committee, and International Paralympic Committee through the Badminton World Federation

The unique qualities of badminton make it accessible and enjoyable for anyone and everyone. And we work collaboratively with our partners and stakeholders to provide traditional and innovative opportunities for all to be involved; from Basic, Senior High and Tertiary School programs to seniors and Veterans social badminton, from School, community, and regional clubs and our national class coaching development to the delivery of our major events.

With Olympic success at the heart of our ambitions, we are investing our knowledge and expertise in rebuilding build a quality future for our sport by strengthening and developing the domestic game and developing talent to achieve success on the international stage, inspiring the next generation of players and local fans, and corporate community.

With thousands of Ghanaians playing every year, badminton is looking forward to being the nation’s favourite racket sport by 2022. We want to inspire everyone to play more, support louder and love badminton, from this generation to the next as the world’s fastest exercise and racket sport.

Get Involved -www.ghanabadminton.org

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