2010 in Retrospect - An Average Year For Athletics
One silver, two bronze medals. That’s just what Ghana had to show for her participation in track and field events at the 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, last October. Not a very good showing by any standards for a country whose athletes made a lot of waves at international competitions in the last few years.
Time was when the likes of Aziz Zakari, Ignasious Gaisah, Margaret Simpson and Vida Anim made a big splash on the international circuit and led Ghana’s medal rush. However, by their own high standards, 2010 passed away as another disappointing year for Ghana athletics, even though the nation’s athletics chief remains upbeat about the future.
As could be expected, high-flying Gaisah earned Ghana a medal in New Dehli just as he did four years earlier in Melbourne, while Anita Fordjour won the country’s other medal on the tracks.
Ghana’s balance sheet from the Commonwealth Games reflects the sorry state of the sport in the country, largely dogged by administrative instability arising from the Ghana Olympic Committee standoff with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The impasse culminated in a state of inertia for more than a year as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the sport’s world governing body, IAAF, suspended annual grants while it pressed for a change in the national association’s constitution to pave way for democratic elections onto the board of the Ghana Athletics Association.
Four years ago, Gaisah was considered one of the world’s best long jumpers after winning the world Indoor Championship, followed a few weeks later with a golden performance at the Melbourne Games with a winning jump of 8.20 metres for Ghana’s only gold in athletics.
Despite an injury that kept him out of action in 2009, Gaisah remained Ghana’s leading light but could not roll back the years in New Delhi. But he still put up a show with a jump of 8.12 metres to settle for bronze.
Where other big name athletes disappointed, Fordjour provided hope for the future by winning not only Ghana’s first medal at the Games, a bronze in the women’s 1,500 metres wheelchair race. Her exploits again proved that wheelchair sports hold a lot of promise for Ghana athletics.
At the 2007 All Africa Games in Algeria, wheelchair events won Ghana a total of 10 medals, with Fordjour and Ajara Mohammed leading the chase. That potential, if given the right institutional support, could hold a lot of promise for Ghana athletics in future.
Sprints again gave the biggest cheer, with the quartet of Rosina Amenebede, Elizabeth Amolofo, Beatrice Gyaman and Janet Amponsah providing light at the end of the dark tunnel after winning silver in 4x100 metres in 45.24 seconds, just 0.3 seconds behind winners England.
Their feat came as little surprise as the relay team comprising Amenebede, Amolofo, Gyaman and Flings Owusu-Agyapong, had given the strongest possible hint of good times ahead after claiming bronze in the African Championship (45.40 seconds) held in Nairobi, Kenya. The men’s quartet also finished third (39.31 seconds) in Nairobi, but they were blown apart by the opposition.
For many years, 34-year-old Zakai was Ghana’s leading light in world sprints, but he seems to be fading out with age. In 2010 he failed to make a big impact on international competitions and could not go past the semi-finals in New Dehli (10.32 sec), leaving the African Championship as his season’s best after winning silver in the men’s 100 metres.
A similar picture could be painted for heptathlete, Margaret Simpson, who had a rather quiet season by her own high standards. She failed to get to the medal podium in the international events in which she competed, including the African Championship.
As old guards like Zakari fade out, new stars like sprinters Janet Amponsah, Allah Laryea-Akrong, Emmanuel Appiah-Kubi, Gyaman and long jumper Atsu Nyamadi are also emerging on the scene with great promise.
Nyamadi was the new kid on the block after an impressive performance at the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore where the 16-year-old long jumper reached the final, having earlier leapt to a personal best of 14.93 seconds. He had previously won gold at the African Youth Olympics qualifier for the ticket to Singapore.
Female sprinters Gyaman and Amponsah both set personal bests of 11.90 and 11.94 seconds at the Commonwealth Games, while performances this year by the likes of Laryea-Akrong and Appiah-Kubi provide a ray of hope for national athletics chief, Prof Francis Dodoo.
“It’s looking good and we have a fair opportunity to be competitive in international events,” Prof Dodoo said on TV3’s Talk Sports.
He noted that funding had been the single biggest challenge faced by the sport due to IAAF’s freeze on its annual grants since 2009, and the indifference shown by potential corporate sponsors.
“Unfortunately, the athletics association has not had a good track record when it comes to accountability over a long period. We are trying to convince sponsors we’ll be diligent with their money, do the right things with their money and be accountable for it,” he said.
In 2011, Ghana hopes to do well at the All Africa Games in Maputo and the Athletics to be held in Daegu, South Korea.
Prof. Dodoo is confident that sprints queen Anim would have recovered fully from surgery to boost Ghana’s quest for at least six gold medals from the Maputo Games and a good showing in Daegu.