Three of Ghana’s top para athletes have left the country for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the aim to secure their spots at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The athletes, Botsyo Nkegbe, Zinabu Issah, and Hayford Addai, along with their coach Emmanuel Anum Sowah, are set to compete at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix from February 10 to 13, 2026. The event is the last direct qualifying opportunity for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
The team’s journey is happening in stages. Coach Sowah and teenage athlete Hayford Addai began their travel yesterday, February 4, 2026. For Addai, a second-year student at Konongo Senior High School, this trip marks first. It is his international debut and he will undergo his first athlete classification in Dubai on February 6 to be formally confirmed as a T47 arm-amputee sprinter and long jumper. Addai has already shown great ability by competing with non-disabled athletes at the Ashanti Regional Interschools Athletics Competition.
The Dubai Grand Prix will be his first world-level para athletics event.
The other team members, Zinabu Issah will compete in the Women’s Shot Put and Discus Throw (F57 class). Hayford Addai will take on the Men’s 100m, 200m, 400m, and Long Jump (T47 class). Veteran athlete Botsyo Nkegbe will race in the Men’s 100m, 800m, and 1500m (T54 class).
The National Paralympic Committee of Ghana (NPC-Ghana), which organized the trip with the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), is hopeful. They believe the three athletes can earn direct qualification to join Paralympian Tahiru Haruna, who has already qualified for the Commonwealth Games in Para Powerlifting.
NPC-Ghana thanked the Ghana Olympic Committee for the financial support that made this important qualifying trip possible.