Charles Osei Asibey, President of the Armwrestling Federation of Africa (AFA), has marked his first year as the continental head, subtly recounting achievement and a projection for the years to come.
In a statement released and signed by himself, the president thanked member federations for the confidence reposed in him to lead Africa and appreciated the efforts of his backroom staff in assisting him to chalk the various successes.
The statement said, “I express sincere gratitude to God, my family, the Good Friends, leadership of Ghana and Africa Armwrestling, the Wonderful Pullers in Africa, Our Coaches, Referees, Member Federations, my partners, Ghana's Minister and Ministry of Youth & Sports, the Foreign Affairs of Ghana, World Armwrestling Federation, my Lieutenants especially Vice President Kofi Addo-Agyekum and General Secretary Julien Boumsong, all my Federation Heads and the many special ones who have supported this journey.”
He assured members and partners that he would continue to work with friends and partners to make Armwrestling an enviable sport of choice in Africa.
First on his achievement was an increase in membership of the continental body as of July 2023. This improvement is due to his leadership effort in making sure that by the end of his tenure, almost all countries on the continent would have signed up to become members of the federation.
The increase in membership also showed an improve participation in competitions as the recently held Africa Armwrestling Championship in Ghana saw a record of over 164 athletes battling for continental glory.
Another achievement of the Osei Asibey led administration is the creation of competitions on the continent to give pullers more playing time on the table, apart from the annual Africa Championship, there has been the creation of the zonal competitions like the West Africa Zone Championship and the introduction of Armwrestling into the Arnold Classic Africa event.
One of the remarkable pluses of the AFA head is the federation’s affiliation to the Association of Africa Sports Confederation (AASC/UCSA) which they had struggled to be members for years but was achieved within a year of his presidency.
For the first time in the history of the sport, there has been a massive TV Coverage for Armwrestling when the Africa championship was broadcasted live on 5 traditional televisions, social media and coverage by Africa sports TV giant Supersports and the BBC.
Through his IT partners, Africa has become the only continent to develop a human resource management software as well as a competition software that would be used for local and international events.
Again, Africa has been given the hosting rights to host the 2024 World Armwrestling Championship and for the first time armwrestling has been added to the sports code for the Africa Games.
Charles Osei Asibey, who is also the President and Founder of the Ghana Armwrestling Federation (GAF), was elected President of the Armwrestling Federation of Africa (AFA) at an elective congress held in Lagos, Nigeria on July 22, 2022.
He currently is working to find quality sponsorship for Africa Armwrestling.
Charles Osei Asibey, President of the Armwrestling Federation of Africa