At the 26th Ghana Universities Sports Association (GUSA) games, which officially opened on 6th January 2020, University of Ghana Vice Chancellor, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, urged GUSA to aspire to move beyond the scope of competitions and tournaments and make sports a sustainable venture where public universities would become the hub for national teams and elite sports. This year’s games took place at Mensah Sarbah Field, University of Ghana (UG) under the distinguished patronage of the Vice Chancellor with the theme “Integrating Sports into Academia for Youth Empowerment and Development.”
UHAS was represented in men’s football, women’s badminton, volleyball, and lawn tennis; men’s basketball, handball, and table tennis; beach volleyball, and athletics (field and track). UHAS Vice Chancellor Prof. John Owusu Gyapong was at the opening ceremony to motivate the various sportsmen and women on Team UHAS to put out their best for UHAS.
The President of GUSA, Dr. Charles Dumfeh applauded the young men and women who, in addition to their core mandate of acquiring academic degrees, have decided to participate in sports for their respective institutions and nation. He urged the athletes to use the occasion as a springboard to showcase their talents and launch a career in sports, and called on stakeholders to help develop sports infrastructure on the various university campuses to restore Ghana's past glory internationally.
He disclosed that Ghana has won the bid to host the Federation of African University Sports (FASU) games in 2022 and urged member institutions to embrace the opportunity “as it will be great to see all African universities come to Ghana for FASU 2022.”.
Director of Sports at the University of Ghana and Co-Chair of the Local Organizing Committee, Dr. Bella Bello Bitugu, applauded the intervention of Vice Chancellors Ghana in restructuring GUSA to be sustainable and transparent in effectively integrating sports in the academic curricula of public universities in the nation.
This year’s games witnessed, for the first time, over 2,000 athletes from eleven institutions competing for laurels in athletics, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, football, goalball, handball, hockey, netball, table tennis, tennis and volleyball. The participating institutions were: University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS); University of Ghana (UG); Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST); University of Cape Coast (UCC); and University of Education (UEW) Winneba. Also taking part were University for Development Studies (UDS); University of Mines and Technology (UMAT); University of Professional Studies (UPSA), and University of Energy and Natural Resources (UPSA). The new entrants at this year’s competitions were the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
Talented athletes — including Benjamin Azamati, fastest student athlete in Africa and African Games champion, and 400 Meters Bronze winner at the African Games, Grace Obour (both of University of Ghana); Edwin Gadayi of University of Cape Coast; Neeyi Akesseh of University of Education Winneba; Kate Agyeman and Rafiatu Nuhu (both of University for Development Studies Tamale) — all graced this year’s event.
The Games ended on January 18, with UCC emerging overall champions with 64 medals. UHAS won the following games: men’s football: UHAS 0, GIMPA 0 (UHAS won on penalties 5:3); UHAS 0, GIJ 0 (UHAS won on penalties 5:3); women’s volleyball: UHAS 3, UENR 1; men’s basketball: UHAS 46, GIJ 22; UHAS 50, GIMPA 49 .”