Collins Amponsah: two of his team mates helped push him make this jump.
We have now learned that it is actually a miracle that Prempeh was able to win the
Ashanti Athletics competition.
Not only were the boys hungry on the field and had to be fed by their fellow
Prempeh students with cheap yogurt in between races, the injuries the boys suffered were deemed insurmountable.
New triple jump record holder Collins Amponsah had to be carried by two other
star athletes for him to make the long jump. With Eric Goloe lifting his left shoulder
and Ahmed Amoako carrying his right arm, they lifted him to the starting point of the
event and helped
him make a strange take-off, which surprisingly worked. The Sports Prefect went on to
take the second position. Then 5 minutes later he had to go and compete in the hurdles finals.
The injury to Sabath Adusei, which required several stitches on the hand in the emergency unit, was the most
serious.
Then there was Assistant Headmaster Koduah's treachery. He secretly approached the
parent of one
star athlete and made him ban the son from competing for the school because of his
age-old opposition to
sports.
Most dishearteningly, some of the masters at Sofoline -- perhaps inspired
by Koduah -- traduced the boys for running.
In the days leading to the competition, some of the nation's most famous
athletes went to their classrooms to occupy their seats only to be told, "Wo die kwasea,
enti wo papa dewo baa sukuu se betu mirika? (You are just an idiot; do you believe that
your father brought you here to
run for this school?)"
Other despicable comments such as, "Ei, enti mirika yi a woreko yi, enti
wobetumi adi nkunim? Ei, wagyimi oh! Wotiri yi, adwene nim?
(These athletic events that you're pursuing, are you
sure you can become victorious? Use your head, you fool!)"
The most shocking thing is that these discouraging sentiments were not expressed privately
to the athletes; they were rather thrown at them in front of their whole class mates as they entered their
classrooms each morning. And all these classmates will provide instant confirmation as witnesses.
Somebody organized a special crusade to discourage all Prempeh athletes from gaining success -- a shocking
discovery that needs an indepth investigation. And the leading suspect in all of these acts is no other
than the ingrate old boy, Mr. Koduah, Assistant Headmaster for Academic Affairs.
It was therefore not surprising that one master attacked athletic star John Fokuo and
physically pounced on him like the carnivorous wolf does to an antelope -- the type we
see on the discovery channel -- just to inflict pain and demoralize him.
This is part of the reason the footballers -- defending national champions -- have refused to train ahead of next month's
title defense.
Prempeh College is begging to be rescued from chronic mismanagement.
