Over 30 foreign athletes have confirmed their participation in the first ever International Meet in Ghana. The event dubbed the 2011 rLG Ghana Grand Prix will bring together local and international track and field champions from France, Jamaica, USA, United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Benin as well as almost 20 foreign-based Ghanaian athletes. Speaking at a ceremony to launch the event in Accra, the President of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) Prof. Francis Dodoo said the Association is happy to have finally put together the meet and was of the believe that “it will [offer] our younger athletes the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best in the world, at the same time it affords our country the rare chance to see our foreign-based heroes like Margaret Simpson, live and in-person at home”. According to Prof. Dodoo these foreign athletes and our own foreign based stars will face stiff competition from another set of forty Ghana-based athletes many of whom were discovered in the just ended National Unity Games. The 2011 rLG Ghana Grand Prix is the first ever International athletics meet in Ghana and will be taking place under the distinguished patronage of His Excellency President J.E.A. Mills and is scheduled to place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Saturday August 6, 2011. Athletics fans will have the opportunity to see many medal-winning track and field athletes in action and be associated in-person with the sort of international calibre event that they have hitherto only seen on their TV screens. The Ghana Grand Prix is sponsored by rLG Communications, Tullow Oil, Unibank, MultiTV and Ghana Television with print media partners including Africa Sports, The Herald, Daily Express and The Informer. Story by Jerry Adu-Asare/Joy Sports/MultiTV