With the athletics competition in the 13th African Games up and running, Team Ghana has a unique opportunity to claim double in the men’s and women’s 4x100m final.
Both the men’s and women’s teams breezed past their opponents at the University of Ghana Stadium in the previous round to earn a place in the final.
While the women’s team clocked 44.24s in the semis, the male side made the time of 38.67s to advance.
With the men’s relay team, they are the African champions, smashing the African Games record in Rabat in the year 2019.
That team had Benjamin Azamati, Joseph Paul Amoah, Sean Safo-Antwi and Martin Owusu-Ansah as they finished with a record time of 38.30s.
Five years on, the team has not been disoriented as Joseph Paul Amoah and Benjamin Azamati have been maintained with Edwin Gadayi and Solomon Hammond as the new additions.
Controlling the semis with a time of 38.67s, one can only hope they can the time they clocked or even better to stand the chance of breaking their record.
That 38.67 seconds was the fastest in the semis heats and tops that of Nigeria who made 38.70 or Liberia who finished with 38.86.
In the women’s event, the quartet of Mary Boakye (pictured), Benedicta Kwartemaa, Janet Mensah and Hor Halutie can also make history by winning gold in the women’s 4x100m event.
The women’s team set the tone for the men’s side when they comfortably made the time of 44.24s.
With the women’s record set at 43.04s, these ladies according to Hor Halutie when she spoke to Citi Sports say they have their eyes on gold.
“We know ourselves and we know what we can do. We have our eyes on the gold and we will do everything we can to claim that medal,” a confident Halutie said.
But unlike Ghana’s men’s relay team, the ladies’ time was slower. For example, Liberia’s quartet completed Heat 1 with a time of 43.73s and Nigeria finished with 43.91s. Had Ghana competed in that race and the time we had, we would have missed out on the finals.
This does not rule the team out in any way as it is a final and they can outdo themselves.
