Furtherance of the Gladiators Cycling Club’s mission to support and promote good causes via cycling, they created an annual criterium last year in celebration of the birthday of the Pan-Africanist who sought to unify Africa through sports, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
The annual road cycling event taking place on a public holiday in Ghana at the Accra Sports Stadium has seen dozens of victory hopefuls, battling the blistering Accra sun while pushing against winds occasioned by the nearby Atlantic Ocean. In the end, only one elite man or woman is crowned the OC of the year. The race involved a distance of approximately 140km in a predictable grueling circuit at the peripheral road oval beginning at the Accra Sports Stadium.
This year’s race took place on Wednesday, 21st of September 2022 and members of #TeamFCG‘s full squad took part and worked hard to walk away with several wins!
Deborah Alasebieton a new team member took the 2nd place for the Female’s 77KM Race, with Clementina Ayoung who is delighted to have another female member in an all men 14 squad, taking 4th place. The team were delighted to see young Charlotte Dakleti just 17 years of age of the Vida Cycling Program taking the 5th position.
Maxwell Doku took the 5th place for the Men’s 130KM Race comprising some 48 riders with Naaba Michael, Alex Quansah, JP Dawance and Jacob Akwei taking 12th, 18th, 23rd and 25th places respectively. A very well done to all the team members!
Winning a criterium requires proper preparation, vigilant positioning tactics, keen attention to energy conservation, and a smart finishing strategy as well as good team communication – something #TeamFCG has incorporated in training over the past months with Fenton’s advice and input and recently with professional input from Gudo Kramer and Marco Postma of Bikes4All, Marco Polo Cycling Club and Worldwide Cycling in Netherlands, now on board providing Mentorship alongside Fenton for #TeamFCG and for Vida Cycling Program.
The Race Director of the Gladiators Cycling club, Mr. Charles Hansen-Quao launched the official logo of the Osagyefo criterium, this year, with an explainable beauty of the new logo which comes along with a philosophical symbolism of the iconic Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, further representing sports on the global level. The logo features a distinct silhouette of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a star, the African map and the national colours of Ghana.
The Ghana Cycling Federation has fully sanctioned the Annual Osagyefo Criterium race and the second edition of the criterium battle promises to be a lifeline ambition for the cyclists in question who are “daring to achieve” the ultimate dream of winning. Please join us to congratulate #TeamFCG.
© Fenton Curley
