The University of Ghana Legon confirmed its status as Africa’s finest men’s university basketball team after claiming a historic second successive men’s basketball championship at the recent 9th Federation of African University Sports (FASU) Games which ended on Sunday, June 8, at the Mekelle University in Ethiopia.
UG are thus yet to taste defeat both domestically or internationally after winning the 2016 FASU Championship at Johannesburg, South Africa.
They have won every single competition they have competed in within that period including the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) championships and the 2018 Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges (UPAC) Basketball Championship.
Coach Dr. Baba Samori’s beat Welkite University of Ethiopia 69-55 in the semi-final before edging Ndeje University of Uganda 61-53 to take first place.
Meanwhile, the UG badminton team also won two gold and silver medals at the championship while the tennis team won two gold medals and a bronze.
In the tennis competition, Jeff Bagerbaseh led the UG team to defeat host Makelle University 6-0, 6-0 in the men’s singles event while Naa Shika Adu led the women’s team to beat Ndeje University 6-0, 6-0 to progress to the semi-finals.
The team, led by the Director of Sports, Dr. Bella Bello Bitugu, head of the coaching unit, Henry Nii Sackey and Registrar at the sports directorate, Regina Asare Boateng, arrived in the country yesterday to a mammoth welcome for their achievement.
Speaking to Beatrice Laryea, Graphic Sports at the Kotoka International Airport last Sunday, Dr Bitugu said: “Our success is as a result of many things including good policy, management, administration continuous restocking of the athletes and by dint of hard work and we are excited for this achievement.
The UG team was made up of Selasi Tamakloe, Daniel Sam, Naa Shika Adu, Jeff Bagerbaseh, Gerald Sappor, Abibu Aninu Adias, Amoah-Acheampong Emmanuel, Joel Opoku-Tham, Okoe Johnson N A Joseph, Gracefilled Anobabaah Attoh, Rafiq Braimah and Maxwell Osei Bonsu.
Overall, the University of Ghana (UG) sports team bagged seven medals, consisting five gold, one silver and bronze at the ninth edition of the Federation of African University Sports (FASU) Games.
In all, 47 universities from 16 countries competed in nine sporting events: athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, football, tennis, table tennis handball and volleyball at the competition organised biennially.
