Ghanaian Sprinter, Josephine Anokye has explained that she turned down an opportunity to compete for Ghana at this weekend’s World Relay Championships in Poland because the Ghana Athletics Association asked her to pay for her own flight and visa acquisition.
The Arizona State University student is Ghana’s fastest female sprinter so far this season (11:40s in 100m and 23.00s in 200m) but she will not be part of team Ghana’s relay squad when they take to the track this weekend in Poland in the Tokyo Olympic qualifying event.
“They told me to fly myself to Los Angeles for the visa and they also asked me to pay for the visa myself.
“I told them I won’t do that because it’s not right. I am not supposed to pre-finance myself to the competition, which was the information I got. So I had to pull out”.
“I don’t have any money. I am a student; I’m not working. So where am I supposed to get money to pay for all this stuff?”
“All those going to Poland, I’m the fastest among them. I feel proud to compete for Ghana but if the state is not willing to spend on us to go and compete, then I don’t see the need for me to go there,” she said.
Some members of Ghana’s 13-team contingent have already arrived in Poland ahead of the two-day competition from May 1-May 2, 2021.
Ghana has entered two 4x100m relay teams for the competition which serves as a Tokyo Olympic qualifier.
The women’s will be represented by Flings Owusu-Agyepong, Hor Halutie, Gemma Acheampong, and Latifa Ali while the men’s relay team will have Joseph Paul Amoah, Benjamin Azamati, Jospeh Manu and Sean Safo-Antwi.
