Ghana will present a total of 72 athletes from 12 disciplines to this year’s Commonwealth Games slated for Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4 to 15 this year.

These include coaches and other technical officials from the various disciplines such as weightlifting, para-cycling, hockey, badminton, swimming, boxing, shooting and cycling.

The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Pius Enam Hadzide, announced this when the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Andrew Barnes, hosted Team Ghana last Tuesday night on its premises at Cantonments in Accra.

The gathering was to enable members from other Commonwealth countries resident in Ghana to interact with Team Ghana and representatives of the International Games Committee (IGC), as well as the Ghanaian media as the teams prepare for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

Mr Hadzide said: “Ghana and Australia shared a common history as colonists of Great Britain but hosting Team Ghana which promises to beat Australia in the Games is a sign of maturity and understanding of the sports language”.

He was full of praise for the Australian High Commission for the gesture, as well as the support of the High Commission to the development of sports and particularly the 2018 Commonwealth Games and said, “even by inscribing the details of the Games on the walls of the Australian High Commission alone is a clear indication that the High Commission has promoted the Games, perhaps more than Ghana has done”.

Mr Hadzide further said Ghana intended to go for a pre-Games preparations in Australia before the start of the event and, therefore, it was taking its preparations seriously.

He also appealed to other corporate bodies to support Team Ghana to make the country proud at the Games.

The Australian High Commissioner to Ghana assured Team Ghana of an exciting stay in Gold Coast and said all the Australians would do what they could to ensure the athletes do their best to enable Ghana to succeed.

Mr Barnes paid tribute to Azumah Nelson, David Harper and other Australian boxers for their roles in the development of boxing in Ghana.

“Boxing in Ghana would not be where it is today without the support of Azumah Nelson. Through David Harper and the Australian mining community funds were raised to support the Ghana boxing team,” he said.

He also lauded the potential of the swimming team of Ghana and said his outfit would keep their eyes on them.

Mr Barnes also charged the Ghanaian media to be proactive by projecting Team Ghana in the coming days, noting that he was excited that the female hockey team would be participating in the competition for the first time ever.