Former Junior National Athlete Abigail Kwarteng becomes first athlete to qualify for the 2016 African Championships in Athletics after clearing 1.77m(PB) to meet the GAA’s B-Standard for the competition.
Abigail, 19, also the reigning Ghana University Sports Association high jump champion recorded a personal best jump at last Saturday’s National Open Championship held at the El Wak Stadium to book the first ticket for the championship slated for Durban, South Africa in July.
She comfortably cleared the mark by two metres at her second attempt, however, her feat did not meet the 2016 Summer Olympic Games high jump entry mark of 1.93m required to qualify for the global showppiece slated for August in Rio, Brazil.
An excited Abigail later told the sportscrusader.com that she was thrilled to have qualified for the African championship at her first athletics competition of the year.
She said, “I am very happy and very excited and I knew I was going to do it before I came here. I had already jumped 1.70 to win the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) high jump so my target was to qualify for the championship.
“The poor state of the tracks was a hindrance because you have to be careful in your run-up. I even twisted my ankle on my last jump which was very painful, so I wish the authorities would fix it for us because my major target for the saeson is to qualify for the Olympics.”
Meanwhile, other athletes who participated in the multi-sport national open failed to produce performances required to qualify for the 2016 Olympics and African Championships.
Abigail Kwarteng Qualifies for African Championship
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