The National Weightlifting Team, Black Cranes are set to participate in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championship slated for California, USA.

The Championship, which would run from 28th November to 6th December would be held at the Anaheim Convention Centre, California.

Team Ghana would be represented by Richmond Osarfo, who would compete in the Men’s 105kg category, with an entry total of 319kg, with Christian Amoah competing in the 85kg category with an entry total of 292kg.

Christopher Forrester Osei, who would join the team from his base in the United Kingdom, would also compete in the 94kg category with an entry total of 309kg.

Dr Kyle Pierce, Head Coach and Technical Director of the team and member of the Technical Commission has been given the mandate to guide the athletes in the competition that would be used to prepare the team for the upcoming 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.

According to the Federation, the Cranes would begin their pre-camping for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games at the Louisiana State University (LSU) after the IWF Championship, where they would stay till March 2018 and join the Games.

They would later be joined by up and coming weightlifting sensation, David Akwei, who won bronze at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Australia last October.

The team’s participation in World Championship and training camping is been sponsored by the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) scholarship and the Technical Director of GWF, Dr Kyle Pierce.   

About 372 weightlifters - 216 men and 161 women from 72 countries would participate in the championship.