The 2016 Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges (UPAC) Basketball Championship has been officially launched. The event which was telecast live on premier Ghana channel TV3, also had the trophy 28 tertiary institutions are set to contest, unveiled.
The Championship which is headlined by Rexona will take place between March 5 and April 16.
The event was graced by high profile personalities including Youth and Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye, Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Azumah Nelson and Ghana Basketball Association Chairman David Addo Ashong.
Representatives from participating institutions, corporate organizations associated with the championship and event organizers Rite Sports Limited also made appearances at the program.
A draw to determine game fixtures in the preliminary rounds was made with derbies dominating the games. In Zone B, Wa Polytechnic and NJA College of Education will square off in an all-Wa derby as Kumasi Polytechnic and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology renew hostilities in Group D.
Speaking at the event, the Sports Minister thanked sponsors and reiterated the need for corporate organizations to be more involved in sports by stating “Sports cannot thrive without corporate sponsorship.”
He further called on Rite Sports to feature women in next year’s edition of the championship in his first official assignment after being officially confirmed as the Sports Minister.
Chief Executive Officer of Rite Sports Yaw Sakyi Afari thanked sponsors and the audience for their cooperation in his closing remarks before a musical performance from rapper Lil Shaker ended the show.
The 2016 UPAC Championship is also supported by MTN, CAL Bank and Fanyogo with partnership from media outlets including Basketballghana.com, Y FM, TV3 and Ghana Sports.
Even though the platform is set for action, I think it is quite trying and very risky considering the fact that jst one team qualifies in each group. I was hoping management could reconsider that particular decision since it could be a do or die affair in the group stages with players getting injured. I don’t know what preparations have been put in place for players who might unfortunately get injured …but I want to believe adequate preparations have been put in place. I still want to humbly appeal that management should at least permit two teams to qualify in each group because that will be fair and absolute. thanks..