Youth Olympics : Nyamadi Triple Jumps Into Final

Ghana's youth triple jumper, Atsu Nyamadi, has sailed through the qualification round into the final at the ongoing 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

Nyamadi secured a place in the final with a leap of 14.93m which ranks 23rd at the competition.

Nyamadi earned a ticket to the 2010 Youth Olympics by winning the only gold medal for Ghana at the Zone 2 Africa Youth Olympic Qualifier in Dakar, Senegal.

Following his feat, Nyamadi was ranked as the number one triple jumper in Africa at the youth (Under-17) level.

On the girls’ side, Rita Lounab missed out on the 1,000m final when she finished 17th out of 33 participants.

•After the preliminary stages of the maiden Youth Olympics in Singapore, Team Ghana has been hit with a reality check and has drastically toned down on its ambition to win topmost prizes now, hoping to pick three bronze medals at the end of the Games.

After the failure of the swimming team to progress past the preliminary stage, hockey and track and field remain Ghana's medal hopes.

Budding talents, Atsu Nyamadi and Rita Luonab, both qualified for the final in the triple jump and the female 1,000 metres respectively after yesterday's heats.

Nyamadi jumped a personal best of 14:93 metres to build on his 4:66m which qualified him at the Senegal qualifiers. But his coach, Albert Nukpezah believes the triple jumper would have done much better if he was fully fit.

Unknown to the coach, Nyamadi who placed 8th out of 16 participants with just two good jumps, had hidden a back injury for fear that if he disclosed it while in Accra, he would have been dropped from the squad.

Immediately after yesterday’s jump, the athlete was sent to the hospital with the assistance of Ghana’s team doctor, Gaeton to commence work on him to ensure that he is fit before the final on Monday.

While Nyanamdi made an easy qualification to the final, Luonab had to be saved by the bell after making a rather impressive time of 3 minutes :03:06sec. Luonab, tipped to win gold after making 2 minutes :40sec in Senegal dropped sharply in her performance.

She told the Graphic Sports, she started menstruating last Wednesday (yesterday) and as a result had been feeling severe pains in her abdomen.

Coach Nukpezah is hopeful that the two athletes will be fully fit before Monday to pick at least bronze medals to make the nation proud.

Ghana’s third medal hopeful, hockey which lost their two matches against Pakistan (3-6) and Australia (8-0), are still confident of playing for bronze if they beat Chile today (Friday) and host Singapore on Monday.

If they are able to do that then the Junior Black Sticks will make it to the Top 4 and will have a chance of playing for bronze.