Wednesday, March 20, 2024, marked the third day of the athletics competition in the ongoing 13th African Games at the University of Ghana Stadium.
In front of thousands of spectators, Ghanaian athletes stepped into the arena with the aim of either making it to the finals or scooping a medal in the final.
On that day, there were three finals for Ghana to attempt a podium finish – Alex Amankwah (800m) and the two 4x100m relay teams – and two qualification sprints for Atiendu Peter and Dompey Barnabas, who were eyeing a place in the men’s 400m hurdles.
The two hurdles sprinters tried their best, but it was not enough to secure qualification. Then came Alex Amankwah, who gave a mighty push in the final leg of his 800m race but could only come fifth with a time of 1:46.53.
The Women’s 4×100 relay team, on the other hand, was hit with an injury to Benedicta Kwartemaa – who ran the second leg in the semifinal and had to be substituted for hurdler Doris Mensah – who ran the 3rd leg for Ghana in the final.
Now to the men’s 4x100m relay team, who finished second and why I think they deserve to be greatly acknowledged for this feat.
HOME CROWD
Your home crowd can be a blessing and a curse, and this African Games has shown the better of the two. The home crowd fired the quartet of Edwin Gadayi, Benjamin Azamati, Solomon Hammond, and Joseph Paul Amoah to the finals a day before, but the same home crowd became their greatest adversary.
The argument will be that these are athletes who have been running for the better part of their adult life and should be used to the crowd by now.
This is a valid reason. However, the country supporting you is very different from Mensah Sarbah Hall or the University of Ghana or KNUST students backing you.
These are athletes, but they are human. All of them have never run in front of their family and friends in the same space before. None of them have had races in Ghana as national athletes, and none of them have definitely had thousands of people cheering them on to victory.
For most parts of their careers, they have been racing on the underdog card, and when suddenly they are favourites to beat Nigeria, you best believe the nerve got to them.
And when you are the record holder, everyone is definitely coming for your head, especially in front of your home crowd. Who does not like to spoil a party?
THE RUNNERS
The 4x100m relay team had just one natural 100m sprinter and three 200m runners (Edwin Gadayi, Solomon Hammond, and Joseph Paul Amoah). Gadayi and Hammond have had 100m races, but they favour competing in 200m sprints.
One would have thought that Aggerh Barnabas, a 100m finalist in the games, would have been picked to start the race instead of Edwin Gadayi, who showed that he is not that good at coming out of the blocks. He has a good finish, but picking himself up has always been a problem for him.
With Benjamin Azamati, let’s face the facts. Recovering from an injury is not that easy, and definitely running with a minor hip injury too does not make matters any easier.
For Solomon Hammond, this is his first-ever event representing team Ghana. He had never been with the 4x100m team, but he has seamlessly created a good rapport with his teammates.
With Joe Paul anchoring, the issue has always been about whether he will be able to time himself to receive the baton with ease and then blaze to the finish line. The semi-finals gave a clear indication of how messy the baton exchange is between himself and Solomon Hammond. No one is to blame. Once they run a lot more together, it will get better.
And in the finals, you could see that before taking the baton from Hammond, he had to slow down because he had gone too far ahead and needed to pace himself so he receives the baton at the right spot. These are very technical, and the best athletes even fail when it matters most when it comes to 4x100m sprints.
DOUBLE GOLD IS TOO MUCH A TASK
If we are being honest and fair, this 4x100m relay did not have a gold medal in them. Not because they are not good runners, but the dynamics of the team make the task a lot more difficult than usual.
This team had a debutante sprinter, a not-so-fit Olympiad, a 200m sprinter with a good finish and poor start, and an anchor who definitely did not know much about the teammate he would be collecting the baton from.
Assuming we presented the quartet of Benjamin Azamati, Joseph Paul Amoah, Sean Safo-Antwi, and Martin Owusu-Ansah who finished with a record time of 38.30s in 2019, best believe that the final would’ve been won even in their sleep.
They pushed themselves to their limits, and it is even more impressive considering it is the first race of the year for Azamati and Joe Paul as well as Solomon Hammond, who is from Coppin State University.
There is so much potential with this team, and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games coming up, it can only get better for Team Ghana. The future is bright.