According to the General Secretary of Ghana Athletics Association Bawu Fuseini, it is unlikely any Ghanaian athlete will get a share of the International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) $500,000 allocated for athletes.
The COVID-19 has altered all of World Athletics programs including the Diamond League and also the Tokyo 2020 Olypmic Games.
To curtail the financial impact this might have had on athletics world over, the World Athletics have set aside half a million dollars for the benefits of athletes but Bawa Fusieni says the amount is woefully inadequate.
“The $500,000 from the World Athletics is just extremely too low to cover for even African athletes alone, but they tied it to athletes who are ranked above 6th in the World.
“If you are within the six ranked athletes in the world you are not supposed to benefit from it and you have to be earning your living through athletics.”
“If you are not a diamond or category A athlete you are not supposed to apply for it.”
So the conditional attached to the package, eventhough the money was too small the restrictions is also not opened for every athlete to have access to it.
Nonetheless some of our athletes have applied and we are waiting to see whether they will be given that.
Meanwhile, The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, due to begin on 24 July, have agreed to a one-year postponement of the event because of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Olympics will start on July 23, 2021 run until August 8.
