President of the Ghana Amateur Boxing Federation (GABF) Mr. George Lamptey has called for better medical conditions and health facilities for national athletes.

He said the health and safety of athletes must become a top priority for all stakeholders, urging the authorities to put in place the right infrastructure to ensure the health and safety of national athletes becomes central.

He praised the government and its affiliated agencies for the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that ‘the early closure of the country’s borders and the institution of the various safety protocols i.e. lockdown, social distancing, washing of hands with soap, usage of sanitizers, wearing of nose masks among others.

Speaking on the impact of the pandemic on the sport, Mr Lamptey said the virus has affected amateur boxing badly, thwarting their training schedule ahead of a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games qualifier in Paris, France.

“After the African qualifier in Senegal, we began feverish preparations for the final qualifier in France when the virus came in, shattering all sporting activities including our own.”

“I believe we have been lucky to not have any of our athletes testing positive for the virus. Even if they get infected, we expect that special health facilities must be allocated to us to seek healthcare.”

He said that as a nation, the health and safety of sports athletes must be a priority because sports medicine the world over has become very crucial and its important Ghana follows that trend.

On the impact, he said “The exciting Bukom Fist of Fury Amateur Boxing League has been halted and has greatly affected our boxers.”

Despite the harrowing challenges, Mr Lamptey remained optimistic about a positive showing from his team in Tokyo if the qualified boxers were given the right exposure to gain experience.

He also appealed for the immediate settlement of bonuses owed the team.

So far, young prodigy, Samuel Takyi and Suleiman Tetteh, the skipper of the Black Bombers have qualified for the Tokyo Games which has been shifted to 2021 with an opportunity for other boxers to join with the final qualifiers in France.

Source: Ghanaian Times