Takyi with the President and Minister of Youth and Sports
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo Friday announced a US$10,000 winning bonus for Samuel Takyi, Ghana’s only medallist at the just ended 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Takyi, would additionally get a car, and a US$20,000, which would be put in a career development fund for him for the next Olympic games and future tournaments.
All other members of the team would get a US$5,000 bonus for their efforts.
President Akufo-Addo made the announcement when the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) called at the Jubilee House, Accra to present the medal to him.
The entire team, including the trainers of the athletes, the technical and management officials, would share a total of US$150,000.
Takyi, a 20-year-old boxer, won a bronze medal in the men’s featherweight division in the games after losing to Duke Reagan of the United States of America (USA) in their semi-final duel.
The boxer is the first medallist from Ghana to have won a medal in any sport since the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 when the men’s football team won bronze.
He is also the fourth Ghanaian boxer to get a podium place in individual sports in the history of the games.
Takyi is now ranked fourth in the world, and first in Africa in the featherweight division of the sport.
President Akufo-Addo the package was a show of appreciation to the Olympic team for its sterling performance in the games.
He said though the team did not bring back many laurels, the individual performance put up by the 14 athletes that represented Ghana at the Olympics was one of the best in the history of the Games.
“For the first time in 29 years the Ghanaian flag was raised at the Olympic games, and for the first time ever in Ghana’s history of the Games, Ghana’s athlete, Samuel Takyi, was selected to represent Africa at the closing ceremony of the Olympic games,” he said.
“Out of the 52 countries that participated in the games, Ghana placed 10th on the African standings,” an elated President Akufo-Addo stated, saying, “this should spur us on to greater heights in future competitions.”
On behalf of the government and people of Ghana, I say a big hearty ayekoo to each one of you on this performance. You have made all of us in Ghana very proud,” he said.
The President told the gathering that the Government, through the Ministries of Education, and the Youth and Sports, is committed to promoting sports in schools, and will continue to provide the requisite infrastructure to enable the country to regain its pride of place in sports on the African continent.
With the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, just around the corner, he charged the Youth and Sports and all stakeholders to put in the necessary measures to ensure “We improve on our performance over the Australia 2018 Commonwealth games.”
President Akufo-Addo also wished Ghana’s Paralympic team that is already at its training base in Japan, the best of luck, as they also prepared to lift Ghana’s flag high in the Paralympic games in that country.
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