World Relays: Ghana women’s 4x100m team miss out on automatic Olympic ticket

Ghana’s women’s 4x100m relay team missed out on an automatic Olympic ticket after they finished 3rd in Heat 1 of their race at the ongoing World Relays in Poland with a time of 44.85s

Ghana needed to finish in the first two of their race to guarantee a place in tomorrow’s final and a ticket to the Olympics.

They could still have qualified automatically if their 3rd place time ranked among the top 2 of the three 3rd place finishes but their 44.85 ranked below Ecuador (43.86 NR) and Denmark (44.25), who also finished 3rd but with better times.

Gemma Acheampong started the team off and handed over to Coppin State’s Latifa Ali. Janet Amponsah, returning to the team for the first time in two years, took the team around the bend before a shaky handover between her and Hor Halutie left the latter with too much a gap to recover as she came across in 4th place.

But Brazil, who finished 1st in the race, were disqualified for lane infringement and Ghana eventually got promoted to 3rd place but it was still inadequate to book their spot in Tokyo.

There will be three more slots remaining following the World Relays and Ghana will need to run the top 3 fastest times in the world among the teams competing for the 3 slots, to be able to secure their Olympic ticket.