Author: Sammy Heywood Okine
Mr. Bawa Fuseini, President of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) has disclosed that the 4x100m Relay Team has got the best preparations and training as well as competition in recent times.
He said they have been together since 2019 and competed in Bahamas, Penn, the Accra 2013 African Games and going to Paris with high hopes of shocking the world.
In the 2019 African Games in Rabat, the relay team was announced to the rest of the continent. Ghana had not won African Games gold in the 4x100m relay race since 2003 in Abuja, but in 2019 they won the title in a time of 38.30, setting a Games record in the process. They did well at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
At the 2024 Penn Relays, the West African country was up against sprint powerhouses Jamaica, and it was a competition that tested Ghana’s relay depth.
The Jamaican’s won the race in 39.59, with Ghana second in 39.71, but the team had reason to be proud, with three of the four sprinters from their African Games campaign missing.
Instead, Oduro Manu and Amoah were joined by Ibrahim Fuseini and Barnabas Aggerh.
The 2024 World Athletics Relays was a success in The Bahamas, where Ghana booked their tickets to the Olympic Games in Paris, is indication of the team’s steady progress.
The overall time of 38.29 seconds in winning the Olympic Qualifying Round 2 race featured fast split times for each of the runners and seamless baton exchanges.
The team of Amoah, Azamati, Fuseini, and Isaac Botsio showing impressive cohesion after an earlier mishap where they dropped the baton in their first round heat the previous day.
“We knew what was at stake, so we just had to go in there and try to correct the wrongs from the day before… We are prepared, mentally strong and ready to go to the Olympics,” Amoah told Olympics.com after the race.
Mr. Fuseini was hopeful they can qualify to the final and from there anything can happen.
Bawa Fuseini assured that the coaches have sharpened all the rough edges in their baton changing and they are ready. Ghana’s Quartet is ranked 10th in the world.
He hinted that High Jumper Rose A. Yeboah has made history as the first female in Track & Field to do the event. “She is capable of mounting the podium” he expressed.
