Monday 27 June 2016

Ghana"s Relay Team Disappointed

Ghanaian women’s 4x100m relay team expressed their disappointment at not being able to run the required time for qualification to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games despite winning a silver medal in a time of 44.05s at the 20th African Seniors Championships at the Kings Park Athletics stadium in Durban South Africa last Thursday.


The quartet of Flings Owusu-Agyapong, Gemma Acheampong, Beatrice Gyaman and Janet Amponsah came second in the final race which was won by host nation South Africa in 43.66s.


The team needed to have recorded 53.53s to break into the top 16 4x100m women’s relay ranking in the world and to secure automatic qualification to the Games.


“We came here trying to get an Olympic qualifier. We didn’t come here to medal,” a visibly disappointed Flings Owusu Agyapong said in an interview, adding that, “So it socks that our time was really slow. We are not excited.”


Ghana thus needs to scout for other relay race opportunities before the IAAF’s Rio deadline date of 11th July, 2016.


Gemma Acheampong commented: “If we can find a meet, then we will be excited to get into it. Give it another go.”


Meanwhile, the Ghana based duo of Abigail Kwarteng and Regina Yeboah came 4th and 5th in the women’s high jump with 1.76m and 1.73m respectively.


Julia Agawu narrowly missed out on a place on the podium after placing 4th in the women’s discus throw with 51.74m.


Three other athletes clichéd final places in their respective events.


800m runner Sampson Laari finished in a respectable 6th place in his debut appearance at the African Championships men’s 800m in 1:47.62m.


Janet Amponsah crossed the finish line in 23.45 to take 5th position in the women’s 200m final while Gemma Acheampong came 6th in a time of 10.49s in the women’s 100m final. The men’s 4x100m relay finished 6th in their final in 40.21s.


The trio of Emmanuel Dasor, Vivian Mills and Akua Obeng Akrofi exited the semi final of their respective 400m events.


Ghana was represented by 27 athletes at the five-day competition which took place from 22nd-26th June, 2016.



Ghana"s Relay Team Disappointed

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