GIJ to join GUSA games soon

The Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) would soon join the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) and participate in the GUSA games.

The sports commissioner of GIJ, Mr. Cyrus Afful confirmed this in an interview at Burma Camp. Speaking in an interview, Mr. Afful said that the failure of the institute to participate in the GUSA games is its inability to secure the requisite facilities.

“There is a basic requirement which is to secure a standard pitch. A standard pitch should have a bench, should be more than average in terms of quality. Am talking about some good grass, well lined with flags and then at least it should be a comfortable place to play.” He noted.

According to him, GIJ lacks all these facilities which would enable them to participate in the GUSA games.

He also stated that as a result of this, the GIJ sports executive committee members are negotiating with Osu PRESEC School for their pitch as their home grounds.

“We are still working on it. We are negotiating with Osu PRESEC School where we had our recent games which had a floodlight and some to show. So we will contact management and then see how far we can go; as in coming to agreement with Osu PRRESEC; so that we register their pitch as our home pitch and the we will look at migrating to the GUSA games.” He emphasized.

Mr. Afful also spoke on some of the challenges the commission is facing in helping develop GIJ sports. He said there are several setbacks in GIJ sports but the major setback is lack of funding.

“GIJ sport is facing several setbacks. First of all, the students’ inclination to sport is a little bit problematic; as the school is geared towards academic theories and then sport has not been given the necessary attention. But the major challenge apart from students’ inclination to sport is lack of funding.” He stated.

Finally, Mr. Afful pointed out the plans of the executives to the institute for semester. According to him, they are planning to play Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) next year and also see how best they can participate competitively in the all inter universities games which will be hosted by Maritime University in 2016.

GIJ has not been participating in the GUSA games since its establishment in 1959 by the first president of the Republic of Ghana Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

National blackout was not a human cause - Amuna

The Chief Executive Office of GRIDCO, William Amuna has asserted that the 5am national blackout was as a result of a fault in the major transmission line but not a human cause.

Mr. Amuna confirmed this in an interview with the Citi FM morning show host Bernard Koku Avle on the Citi Breakfast Show.

“We had a disturbance in the power system relating to one of our major transmission line. So we lost supply to some part of the country.”

Mr. Amuna also said that the national blackout did not affect about 40 to 50% areas in the country which happens to the whole of the Western part of the country, adding that the last time such incident happened was in 2010.

“Accra-Tema was off and then a number of areas. We had close to 40 to 50% of the country still intact. The whole of the western part of Ghana was on anyway. There was a fault in transmission line and when it tripped, it trips some of the unit that is what caused it. The last time it happened was about 2010 so these are very real events and occasionally happenings.”

He ended by saying that GRIDCO is in the process of restoring power and confirmed that about 90% of the affected areas’ power has been restored.

UCC make GUSA games history

The University of Cape Coast (UCC) have made history in the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) games by winning the ultimate with 63 medals in total.

UCC are the only institution that have won the GUSA games as a host and defended the title.They hosted and won the 23^rd edition in Cape Coast and went on to win the 24^th edition in Winneba.

The event done under the auspices of Professor Mawutor Avoke, vice chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) saw the host institution taking the second position with 21 gold, 22 silver and 16 bronze medals. UCC won the competition with 25 gold, 23 silver and 15 bronze medals.

The premier university of Ghana, UG took the third position with 15, 11, and 18 gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively. KNUST also maintained their forth position with 4, 7, and 12 gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively.

UPSA who joined the GUSA games few years ago came fifth with no gold medal, two silver and bronze medals. UDS also made history by winning their first ever medal in GUSA games since the institute’s establishment in 1992. Newly joined university UENR and UMaT did not win any medal.

The next edition would be held in Tamale by UDS in the year 2018.