Martha Bissah’s Coach Calls For More Support

The coach of Ghana's gold medallist at the recent Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, has sounded the alarm bells that the gifted athletes might miss the 2016 Olympic Games if she did not get financial support from corporate Ghana to sustain her career development.

Corporal Isaac Nii Lamptey, who doubles as coach and guardian of Ghana's golden girl Martha Bissah, fears financial neglect the athlete was currently experiencing could derail her preparations for the next Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A frustrated coach Lamptey, an officer of the Form Police Unit (formerly the Rapid Deployment Unit) in Kumasi, expressed this sentiment last Monday when he accompanied Martha to the offices of Graphic Sports in Accra.

He stressed that as a young athlete, Martha needed to improve on her 800-metre gold medal winning time of 2:04.90 minutes, if she would stand a chance of winning laurels at the senior level in the not-too-distant future.

“After Martha got back from the Youth Olympics in China with the 800 metres gold medal, she was the darling of the whole country and got the opportunity to meet the President but just a week after that everyone seem to have forgotten about her.

“We expected the nation, especially the corporate bodies, to give her financial support for her preparations, including equipment and training kits when the season starts,” he said.

“The Ghana Athletics Association and Ghana Olympic Committee have been very helpful but it is not their responsibility to cater for her; they perform their duties by getting her competition”.

Coach Lamptey, who operates the All Nations Athletics Academy at Buokrom in Kumasi, where he caters for over 30 athletes including Martha, explained that his salary was inadequate to cater his family as well as all the athletes under his care.

“The facility where Martha and the other athletes are housed is an uncompleted storey building without electricity. People expect so much from her, especially after they heard the President gave her money, but there are so many competing interests on that money. That money was a reward for Martha's exploits in China, for her preparation for the new season, and by extension for her parents who are cassava farmers at New Aboi in Bogoso.”

Corporal Lamptey added that a lot of fundraising activities had been conducted in Accra on Martha's behalf but he did not know how much had been collected for the athlete but said he would take advantage of his visit to Accra to collect some of those monies.

For her part, Martha described her achievement at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing as a blessing to the nation but pleaded for more support from the government and corporate bodies.