President of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation and President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Ben Nunoo Mensah, has expressed satisfaction at the success of weightlifter, Christopher Forrester Osei, who won gold at the Africa Zone One Senior Weightlifting championships in Libya last week.
The competition which served as one of the qualification events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games was held in Tripoli, Libya.
Ghana’s Forrester Osei competed in the Men’s 96kg category and finished top with a total of 315kg to win three gold medals in snatch, clean and jerk and total.
Nunoo Mensah says even though it’s not been easy promoting the sport on his own, he’s happy to see his hard work manifesting in results.
“Once you make inputs and the results are coming, it’s very pleasing. I must say I’m very happy, not just for the weightlifting federation, but for the whole country because we’re edging closer to qualifying for the Olympics,” he told Citi Sports.
“It’s not been easy to be successful in managing the least-financed sports. Most of the time we have to find money from our own pockets to finance activities, which is why we’ve been very successful.
“I think if government begins to pump resources into some of these disciplines, our chances of winning medals would be very much enhanced,” the GOC president said.
Forrester Osei developed muscle cramp in both quadriceps prior to his event but still managed to snatch 145kg with clean and jerk of 170kg to score a total of 315kg.
