Ghana has never won an Olympic medal in track and field. The country has five medals at the Games with the most recent one recorded at the last edition of the Games in Tokyo. As Paris looms, there are a few questions.
Despite winning 69 medals including 19 gold at the 2023 African Games, no Ghanaian athlete has booked automatic qualification to the Olympic Games.
One such athlete is Cadman Yamoah, who won gold in the high jump, clearing a height of 2.23m, but with the Olympic standard is 2.33m he still has some distance to jump to get there.
“2.23m to 2.33m is quite there but if my waistline is able to get to 2.33m, what’s the probability that I cannot go over the bar when I am actually jumping? 2.33m is not a big deal but it’s going to take a lot of preparations to get myself there,” Yamoah told 3Sports.
Ghana’s swim team have two wildcards whilst the men’s 4*100m relay squad comprising Benjamin Azamati, Joseph Paul Amoah, Edwin Gadyi and Solomon Hammond are 15th place in the world relay ranking, but with two relay meets coming up, that could change. However, the Ghana Athletics Association remains confident.
“As far as the Olympics is concerned, the relay team will definitely qualify. We have the Penn relays and the Bahamas event but we are very sure we will qualify,” Charles Osei Asibey, the executive member of the Ghana Athletics Association told 3Sports.
In Early April, Isaac Botsio recorded a +2.2 wind-aided 9.90s in a 100m event, the fastest time in NCAA divisions this season. Despite his world-leading time, he narrowly missed out on automatic qualification as the Olympic Games accepts +2.0 wind-assisted time for athletes running 10.00s or less in the 100m.
But with a few competitions left, Botsio feels his steady progress this season will get him to the top.
“In track and field at times, you get ups and downs but it’s all about focus in running and running consistently so I will say my times are good,” Botsio told 3Sports.
Paris will welcome over 10,000 athletes who will compete for over 5000 available medals in 32 sporting disciplines. With the qualification deadline set for the end of June, Ghanaian athletes will keep battling for a chance to compete at the world’s biggest sporting event.