Mr Zwennes gave the advice over the weekend at the HFC Head office at Ridge in Accra, when his outfit presented sports kits to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for this year’s National Youth Athletics Festival. The Festival is scheduled for August 22 to 23 at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium.

The items, which formed part of the Bank’s sponsorship package to the GES include; athletics vests, polo shirts and cap, medals, certificates of merit, copies of the event brochure and assorted refreshments. The donation was received by Mr Emmanuel Dormenyah, the Physical Education Director at the GES.

Mr Zwennes said there was the need to halt the falling standards of Athletics in the country, adding that, “Ghana should not only be participants at competitions, we should also win medals, so efforts must be made to ensure the development of athletics by developing the youth in the sport.” ‘We must be seen on the winners’ rostrum.

The only way to do that is to be interested in athletics development and support the junior level participation. We must catch them young and they will develop to be who we want them to be” he added.

The Board Chairman said the Bank is committed to youth athletics development in the Country. According to Mr. Zwennes, the Bank’s sponsorship of the Youth Athletics is not just about providing logistics for the games.

It is also about facilitating the development of talents from the junior level to the seniors to represent the nation at international competitions and win laurels. He said the Bank’s, Slogan of “GTG” – Ghana Tokyo Gold - which was launched last year by the Managing Director of the Bank is on course with a plan to have a development path for talents identified at the Youth Athletics over the three year sponsorship period.

Mr Domenyah commended the Bank for their tremendous support in youth sports development and believes that Ghana has the talents to win gold medals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

This year’s sponsorship by the Bank is the second of the three-year partnership with the GES. It is expected that this partnership with the GES will help identify, groom and develop potential athletes, who will be capable of winning Olympic and other international laurels for the nation.