Africa Games 2023: Ghana’s ‘Lack of Preparedness’ Highlighted After South Africa Withdraws Teams

• The Africa Games in Ghana have been criticised for lacking adequate preparation
• South Africa withdrew its hockey teams due to differences over the pitch's state
• Sports Brief looks into the possible problems for the 13th edition of the games

The decision by South Africa's Olympic Committee, SASCOC, to withdraw its hockey teams from the ongoing Africa Games in Accra, Ghana, has added fuel to a fire of discontentment about how the organisers have gone about the games.

The event, which ends this weekend, attracted at least 5,000 athletes competing in 30 disciplines. On paper, the games are supposed to be the biggest sporting event on the continent after the Africa Cup of Nations.

However, the competition has failed to attract as much interest as initially expected, with athletes going on about their activities silently with little to no support from the 12th man.

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South Africa's bold decision to quit the hockey competition reopened talks about whether Ghana was ready to host the rest of the continent or whether the African Union organisers were at fault.

Why South Africa withdrew its hockey teams

Patience Shikwambana, South Africa's team leader, stated the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Pitch had not been certified as spelt out by the world governing body for hockey, the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

"Our Hockey Federation consulted with Sports Flooring Warehouse, a South African-based specialist in carpet laying, and a FIH-recognised service provider. They have also advised us - having analysed the images we shared with them - that the field is not satisfactory and may cause harm to the athletes," she said, as quoted by Joy Online.

The competition had already been postponed thrice as Ghana worked on getting the pitch ready, leaving the participants with no time to run tests despite initial promises in a meeting in October.

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Jamaldeen Abdullah, the executive assistant to Sports Minister, Mustapha Ussif, fired back at the allegations in a Facebook statement, calling on fans to 'disregard any misinformation attempting to discredit the pitch's quality'.

Did AFCON 2023 affect Africa Games?

Fisayo Dario, a Nigerian journalist with ACL Sports, attributes a very successful 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast to the struggles of the games in Ghana.

CAF and the participating teams outdid themselves to showcase the best tournament in the competition's history.

So high was the bar set that the Africa Games following the AFCON just a month later was, for lack of a better word, suicide.

"The problem started from the timing. Having it held immediately after a successful AFCON tournament overshadowed the games in terms of publicity across the continent," Dario tells Sports Brief.

"Ghana failed to publicise what should have been their own Games. Considering it's a competition being held in just one city, football aside, the publicity was awful."

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The lack of adequate following by fans on the continent has been attributed to the lack of international broadcasters. Until March 19, only Ghana's national broadcaster had the rights to the games.

No international broadcaster bought the rights, leaving fans not in Ghana to rely on online streams to keep up the pace.

"I think the organisers should have given 50% right to GBC and sold the rest of 50% to other stations who were interested in showing the continent's second biggest sporting festival after the AFCON," admits Richard Achore, who is the Local Organising Committee's Venue Media Officer at Borteyman Sports Complex, the Aquatic Centre.

Lack of fans at Africa Games

Achore believes Ghana was ready to host the games despite the facilities issues, but they were hard done by other teething issues like the country's economic state. Fan apathy was a glaring issue on the grounds across Accra, but the situation is slowly picking up.

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"The interest is low because of the economic challenges we face here. For instance, the tickets for the opening ceremony were priced at 25 USD, which is approximately 300 GHC. Not many people can afford this money.

"But when the LOC decided to make the Games free entry, a lot of people now attend our games, Volleyball at Borteyman Sports complex, swimming, football at the Legon Sports Stadium and yesterday's athletics, you saw the fans, which is very encouraging."

Lack of high-profile athletes in Accra

The inability of the games to attract high-profile athletes has also been a concern. In athletics, for instance, 2022 100m hurdles World Champion, Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, Kenya's Mary Moraa (reigning world champion 800m), and Beatrice Chepkoech (3,000m steeplechase world record holder) made the trip to Ghana. But even of the three, Amusan is the only one expected to excite local fans.

Despite this, the games have proceeded smoothly, with Egypt dominating the medal rankings. The North African country leads the fray, garnering close to 160 medals at the time of writing.

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However, Ghana will look back after the games and ponder whether they maximised the opportunity to use them as a cash stem while showcasing Africa's best to the world.

Having already gotten criticism for financing the games while the country is in the middle of an economic crisis, the lack of proper logistical planning to profit from it doesn't look like a wise idea either.

The Gambia claims women's 100m gold

Sports Brief also reported that Gambia's Gina Bass won the women's 100m final at the Africa Games.

Bass set a time of 11.36 to beat Liberia's Maia Alyse McCoy, who came in second with 11.49 seconds.

Nigeria's Olayinka Olajide bagged the bronze medal over the same distance in a time of 11.55 seconds.