A Presidential Staffer Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah has been elected as the new president of the Ghana Weightlifters Association of Ghana at a short but impressive ceremony at the Media Center of the Accra Sports Stadium. He was elected unopposed as the incumbent President and now Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry who also doubles up as the Member of Parliament for the Odododiodio Constituency Hon Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye decided not to contest. Vanderpuye cited his busy schedule as the main reason behind his decision not to contest thus paving the way for the newly elected Chairman who then contested as the sole candidate. As if by design, all the other leadership positions were also not contested with all the nominated candidates running unopposed. The occasion was graced by the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Joseph Yammin, the Acting Director General of the National Sports Authority Madam Alice Attipoe, the Chief Sports Development Officer of the National Sports Authority Mr Erasmus Adorkor and the Chairman of the Ghana Olympic Committee Professor Francis Dodoo. The Chairperson of the Ghana Table Tennis Association, Rev Quarcoo who represented the various sporting disciplines under the National Sports Authority was full of praise for the outgoing executive led by Mr Vanderpuye and looked forward to the new executive further improving upon the hard work of their predecessors. Mr Nunoo-Mensah who was humbled by the honour done him, pledged to do his best to see the nation win a reasonable number of medals at the international level beginning with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland next year where he incidentally happens to be the Chef De Mission of the Ghana team. Ghana was represented at the London 2012 event by weightlifter Alberta Ampomah who has since joined the Police Service and the new Chairman is already looking at unearthing a lot more talent good enough to win laurels for the nation. “Weightlifting is a very disciplined sport and my newly elected executives are committed to improving on its current state. Alberta made us proud in London but we want to surpass that. We are looking at improving upon the facilities, the general welfare of the athletes and providing them with the right expertise that should see our performances improve over the next few years. If this target set ourselves can be attained in reasonable time, I do not see why we cannot compete favorably with other sporting disciplines.” With up to a year to prepare for the Commonwealth games as well as other international tournaments, the association is counting on the support of government in order to see their dreams become a reality. Other members of the executive include Isaac Tetteh of TT brothers fame who came in as the Vice President.