The All-Africa Sports Awards organised by renowned Jamaican-born British journalist, Al Hamilton MBE makes a return for the first time in a decade with the 2017 event billed to take place in Accra on November 11.
Hamilton who is credited for also founding the Commonwealth Sports Awards in 1980 to honour some of the best athletes and administrators across all 71 Commonwealth nations, first initiated the African version of the awards successfully in Ghana ten years ago but could not continue as planned due to his involvement in a fatal accident that affected his activities for some time. But not anymore.
“The All-Africa Sports Awards took a very serious part of Ghana at 50 (anniversary celebrations) and it was our intention to follow up but the accident curtailed things somewhat,” Mr. Hamilton explained to the media at a brief interaction at the African Regent Hotel in Accra on Tuesday.
“Now we’ve got and this is official, the full blessings of the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo to host this event in Ghana and with the blessings also of Ghana at 60 secretariat,” Al Hamilton said.
“So this event will take place on 11th November here in Ghana, the venue will remain a secret until the proper launch next month when we will know who the partners will be, who the sponsors will and all other issues related to the event,” he added.
Beyond the launch and actual event seeing the day of light in November, the man who is also renowned for his enthusiasm and promotion of boxing in this country, is not ruling out getting involved in the sport administratively and promotions again.
“I can never leave boxing, it’s part of my DNA and you know I have a very good friend here, Alhaji Tofiq who’s supported me over the years, we both invested millions of Cedis in boxing over the years. I’ve had some bad experiences with some boxers but its still the game I love,” Mr. Hamilton stated.
There is no doubt however about the project that occupies the utmost priority on his mind at the moment.
“I really want to spend my twilight years developing the All-Africa Sports Awards because there is no continent in the world which honours outstanding achievement at the highest level on a continental basis,” he revealed.
He added full of optimism: “We did it in 2007 and we are going to do it again this year 2017. And that is the baby that I hope to nurture and continue doing until when the bell tolls.”
