Daily Heritage October 2

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Sports
DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2017
Ghana to participate
in 2017 FIBA
3X3 Africa Cup
•Romario of Brazil
Footvolley Association
of Ghana to be launched
BY ANNETTE S. YEBOAH
THE PUBLIC Relations
Officer of
Footvolley Association
of Ghana
(GFVA), Aglago
Wonder Sitsofe,
has said that on Saturday, October
21, 2017, the sport would
be launched at the Accra Sports
Stadium Media Centre.
Mr Sitsofe told the DAILY
HERITAGE in Accra last
Thursday that the launch would
be done by Mr Luis Gomez
from the United States of
America, who is an executive
member of the Federation International
of Footvolley
(FIFV).
He said the sport, which is
new in Ghana and Africa as a
whole, was introduced in the
country in August 2015.
According to him, the association
has used the two-year
period to do some strategic
planning on how to develop
the sport to attract young and
able Ghanaians as the country
is now a member of FIFV.
Mr Sitsofe said footvolley is
currently being played at the
University of Education, Winneba
in the Central Region on
an artificial court and some
parts of Greater Accra on the
beaches.
“Footvolley is played on the
beach and where there are no
beaches, we create an artificial
court so everybody can also
participate. It is not only limited
to only those from the
coastal belt,” he said.
He continued that the association
would adopt beach soccer
arena at Laboma or Borla
Beach behind the Black Stars
Square for their matches in
Accra.
The PRO said the sport is
less expensive but it would take
an individual some agility,
•From (L-R) Officials of GFVA, Agyeman-Mireku Emmanuel, deputy organiser, Aglago
Wonder Sitsofe, PRO, Samira Mensah, assistant secretary and
Abdul Karim Salis, Organiser. PHOTO: Maxwell Osei
stamina and endurance to succeed
in it as it requires a lot of
training.
According to him, they
would use the sport as their
contribution to help clear the
filth on the beaches of Ghana
and replant coconut trees
there.
“We are collaborating with
a non-governmental organisation
Clean Beach Ghana, and
the elders and people along the
beaches to make sure that our
beaches are rid of plastic waste
and human excreta,” he said.
The authorities in charge of
the sports, who are mostly university
students, said they
formed the association and
brought the sports to Ghana
because of the passion and
love they had for it.
“We did not form this sport
association because of money
and travelling opportunities
but rather to help contribute
our quota to the development
of Ghana sports,” he stated.
Footvolley would become
the 45th sporting discipline in
Ghana should their application
to be recognised as an association
or federation is accepted
by the National Sports Authority
and the Ghana Olympic
Committee.
What is footvolley?
Footvolley is a sport practised
by two teams of two players
each in a block of sand in
either sides of the field with a
net as the dividing line. The ball
can be hit with any part of the
body, except the hand, the arm
and the forearm. A team is entitled
to hitting the ball three
times to send it off to the opposing
field. A player is not allowed
to hit the ball twice
consecutively.
The inventor
It was invented by Octavio
de Moraes in 1965 in Rio de
Janeiro’s Copacabana, Brazil.
The sport combines field rules
that are based on those of
beach volleyball with ball-touch
rules taken from association
soccer.
Famous players
in footvolley
In recent years, professional
football players have
taken up footvolley in both
promotional events and
celebrity matches. Some notable
Brazilian footballers
who have played (or still play)
footvolley are Romario, Edmundo,
Ronaldo, Ronaldinho
Gaucho, Junior and Edinho.
First international
footvolley tournament
The first International
Footvolley event to occur outside
of Brazil was in 2003 by
the United States Footvolley
Association on Miami Beach
at the 2003 Fitness Festival.
This event led to international
players and teams in pursuit of
federation statuses.
International rules
Points are awarded if the
ball hits the ground in the opponents’
court, if the opponents
commit a fault, or if they
fail to return the ball over the
net. Scoring is done using the
rally point system. Match scoring
is usually up to the event organizer's
discretion. Generally
speaking matches are one set to
18 points; or best of three sets
to 15 points (with third set to
11 points). The court is 29.5
feet x 59 ft (old beach volleyball).
The height of the net
varies based on the competition.
The Official International
Rule for the net height set is 2.2
meters or 7 feet 2 inches for the
men's competition. For the
women's competition, the
height of the net should be set
at 2 meters or 6 feet 6 inches.
BY ANNETTE S.
YEBOAH
•The selected ballers
for the trip to Togo
GHANA BASKET-
BALL senior team has
been invited to participate
in this year’s
Fédération Internationale
de Basketball
(FIBA) 3X3 Africa
Cup to be staged in
Togo in November
2017.
The invitation was
Ghana’s second time of
participating in the
event due to itsimpressive
performance at
last year’s edition in
Nigeria where the male
team placed third and
the women fourth.
The FIBA 3X3 coordinator
of Ghana,
Mr James Kwame
Ocloo, told the
DAILY HER-
ITAGE in Accra on
Friday that 10 African
countries had the opportunity
to be selected
for the
competition which
would start from Friday,
November 3,
2017, to Sunday, November
5, 2017 in
Togo.
He said the participating
teams are host
nation Togo, Ghana,
Nigeria, Kenya,
Uganda, Madagascar,
La Cote d’ Ivoire, Angola,
Egypt and
Tunisia.
Mr Ocloo said some
ballers from the various
basketball clubs in
Accra had been selected
for camping and
training at Kawukudi
in Accra with the
Ghana Basketball Association
vice president,
Mr Ayambire
Iddrisu Gamelmis, as
the facilitator.
The eight selected
ballers, made up of
four males and females,
moved to camp on
Monday, September 25,
2017, and have since
been preparing intensively
to keep them in
tune for the three-day
competition in Togo.
The coordinator
said the entire team
would depart Ghana
on Saturday, November
2, 2017, and added
that their aim was to
return to the country
with the trophy.
He said they were
not scared of the stiff
competition they
would meet from
Nigeria and Angola
who are Africa’s best
when it comes to basketball
on the continent.
According to him,
each player will be allowed
75 seconds and
three attempts per
round to complete a
dunk with the first successful
dunk being
considered as the valid
one.
He said dunks
would be graded 0 or 5
to 10 by each member
of a jury composing of
five people.