The Junior Olympics, organised by the Legon Creative Athletics Club (LCAC), is aimed at imbibing the athletic spirit and culture into infants who will become Ghana’s sportsmen and women.
Its inaugural edition gathered about 300 kids in 2021. This year’s edition – its second – will happen in Kumasi from June 16.
Over 800 kids, with some as young as seven, have registered.
“I was introduced to soccer at a younger age and we want to change the narrative,” Benjamin Azamati said in West Texas A&M University’s ‘The Rundown’ podcast.
“We want the kids to fall in love with the sport at a very young stage, compete amongst themselves and see what it’s like to compete amongst their age group. We want them to know there’s a sport career aside soccer.”
Azamati awarded one of the most promising athletes from 2021 with the spikes he used to break Ghana’s 100m record in 2021.
Elorm Amenakpor, was one of Ghana’s coaches at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and is confident the Junior Olympics will help unravel athletes with the potential to surpass Ghana’s fastest man.
“We have a lot of kids in Ghana better than Ben [Azamati] but they don’t have the opportunity. So we are trying to create it for them.”
Kids from 7 and 13 will compete in the 100m, 200m and 400m events. The 800m, 1500m and long jump events will be added for athletes aged 14 to 19.