The Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Professor Peter Twumasi, has expressed satisfaction with the performance of athletes who participated in this year’s National Cross Country event.

The two-hour race, which started at 6 am on Saturday, was organised to identify and unearth talents ahead of the 2023 African Games to be held in Ghana.

Last year’s Asante Akyem Marathon Challenge winners, William Amponsah and Lariba Juliana Sakat, were the top performers during Saturday’s 2022 National Cross Country in the Eastern Region from a field of 192 males and female athletes are drawn from all the 16 regions across the country.

Central Region won gold in the men’s category, while the Upper West region came tops in the women’s race of the championship organised by the National Sports Authority and the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA).

The NSA boss, Professor Peter Twumasi, was overwhelmed by the level of competitiveness of the participants.

“I am very satisfied today because what we started with, that little fire that we started somewhere about four years ago 2019 in Mpohor in the Western Region,” he said during the closing ceremony.

“Today, what I am seeing here, the athletes that have all been captured into the national and also world athletics databases, I look at this, and I say wow, we can start from somewhere and get somewhere,” said Prof. Twumasi.

The NSA boss is confident the future of Ghana athletics is bright considering the athletes mobilised for the country in the last four years through the organisation of the National Cross Country.

“This shows the future of our athletics, the future is so bright, and I am very grateful to all who have made it possible,” he said.

“I think that what’s ahead of us is even bigger,” the NSA boss emphasised.

“I’ve always been indicating to all the various federations about 57 of them that this kind of national competitions between districts and for them to be coming to the regional level and eventually to the national level is what Ghanaians are looking for. And I’m very grateful to you all for making this a successful event”.