Team Ghana dropped the baton in the 4x100m relay race and finished in a time of 42.70s on the first day of the World Relay Championships in Bahamas.
The baton changeover between Isaac Botsio and Benjamin Azamati didn’t go as planned, baton fell and the team lost ground in a race they started quite beautifully in.
This is not the first time Ghana has particularly messed up a relay race because of a changeover. In 2021 in Silesia, Ghana ran 38.79s in the heat to book a place in the final only to finish sixth after a poor changeover in the final stretch.
An unfortunate mixup between Botsio and Azamati results in a dropped baton.
We go again tomorrow 🇬🇭 pic.twitter.com/3NX2OvUIKm
— Mr. Daniel Koranteng (@Dani77k) May 5, 2024
At the African Games in Accra last March, a final changeover from Solomon Hammond to Joseph Paul Amoah hurt Ghana’s chances of winning a gold medal on home soil; succumbing to a silver medal as they painfully watched Nigeria ran away with the gold.
The coaches will be under immense pressure now to prepare the team properly in the next few hours to return to the tracks for Day 2 of the relay race. Hopefully the team can get their acts together and get better at the race to qualify Ghana to the Olympic Games.
However, the United States ran a world leading time of 37.49s to finished first in the race and book their ticket to the Olympics Games with Italy who finished in 38.14s. Liberia finished 4th with 39.07s and will also look at the next race to try to make the plane to Paris.
