The Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has officially launched the 6th edition of the GNPC Ghana’s Fastest Human Project.

The project primarily seeks to harness sprinting talents to represent the country on the international front and this year’s event has been scheduled from 27th April to 14th September, 2019.

The Vice President noted that the Ghana’s Fastest Human project aimed at restoring Ghana’s image as one of the best sprint events nations in the world of Athletics. He noted that the initial target of GFH at the time of inception six years ago was to win a medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. However, six years along the line, the organizers have changed their original projection to qualifying Ghana’s relay team to the Olympics Games in Tokyo 2023.

The Vice President stated that participating to win medals should be the aim and not just pride ourselves oh having qualified to participate in international competitions. He enjoined the members of the Ghana Athletics Association to put national interest above personal interest and should work as a ream to achieve move Ghana Athletics forward.

He noted that Ghana has won the bid to host and organize the 13th Edition of the African Games in 2023 and there is the need to prepare adequately to present a formidable team that can bring glory and honour to the nation.

The Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Isaac Kwame Asiamah reiterated that the Ghana Fastest Human project which intially focuses on producing potential medal-winning athletes to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo has reviewed the projection to disqualifying relay teams to Tokyo, 2020 and supported the call of the Vice President to compose an evaluation team with members from the Ministry, the National Sports Authority, the Ghana Athletics Association to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the program. He challenged the organizers to focus on the identification and development of sports talents to qualify the relay team to compete at the aforementioned event.

Hon. Asiamah highlighted Ghana’s downward trend in Athletics as a result of the lack of space to harness and develop talents.

He said his outfit has embarked on massive construction of youth and sports centers across the country to ensure there is enough space for young people to develop their talents adding that the centers after completion will include a modern eight lane artificial running tracks for athletics and additional facilities for over fifteen sporting disciplines.

He said the Ministry as part of its programmess has outlined a maintenance programme to embark on a dedicated rigorous maintenance culture throughout the year to ensure that the country’s sports infrastructure are in good shape for a long period.

He took the opportunity to commend the sponsors particularly the headline sponsors for the massive support throughout the years for the Ghana Fastest Human programme to revive athletics in the country.

He urged the executives of GFH to collaborate with the Ministry with regards to talents selection and development taking into account global best practices.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GNPC, Dr. KK Sarpong also noted that his outfit is extremely enthused to be associated with the project adding that since the partnership with GFH competitions in 2014, progress has been made by athletes who participated in these championships.

He said GNPC is motivated by the principal objective of the project, which is to unearth talents and nurture them to represent Ghana at the 2020 Olympic Games to be staged in Tokyo.

He called on all who believe have the potential to take advantage of the programme in order to be discovered for the task ahead.

Dignitaries in attendance included the Director General of the NSA, Prof. Peter Twumasi, Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana’s Fastest Human Mr. Rex Brobby, President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Mr. Ben Nunoo Mensah, and Life Patron, Madam Cecilia Campbell.