Team Ghana has withdrawn from Friday’s 4x100m relay heats at the ongoing World Athletics Championships after two members of the team picked up injuries during their individual events on Wednesday.
The decision was taken after James Dadzie and Joseph Paul Amoah picked up injuries in the men’s 200m heats during the morning session of Day 5.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Ghana Athletics said the decision was taken in consultation with the Honorable Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Mustapha Ussif and affirmed that “it is in the best interest and greater good of James and Joseph’s careers to discontinue participation in the championships given the circumstances and to shift focus to support options for treatment.”
Dadzie pulled his hamstring about 80m into the race, resulting in a grade II tear in the bicep femoris muscle in his left hamstring.
Amoah, who has anchored Ghana’s relay team to three national records, finished 5th in his 200m heats and missed out on a place in the semi finals. He later reported feeling a pop sensation accompanied by sudden pain in the lateral front side of his right foot. A subsequent x-ray scan revealed a small fracture at the base of his right big toe.
Both were entered to run in the 4x100m heats.
The injury to the duo now means Ghana’s relay team only has three members available and fit, not enough to enter for the race.
Edwin Gadayi, Isaac Botsio and Raymond French are the only three fit members of the team.
The turn of events is a huge blow for Team Ghana, whose participation at the Budapest championships has been nothing short of underwhelming, with long jumper Deborah Acquah exiting the competition on the very first day, missing out on a place in the women’s long jump.
She later told Joy Sports in an exclusive interview that she had been battling an injury for the better part of a year.
The relays represented Ghana’s brightest hope of a noticeable participation, with the team having made the final of each of the previous four global championships.
A non-participation in the race could have serious ramifications for Ghana’s chances of qualifying the team for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Making the final in Budapest would have guaranteed the team qualification to the World Relays in the Bahamas in April 2024, where the finalists would then qualify for the Olympic Games, leaving only 4 more slots for the rest to try and qualify.
Ghana could still qualify for the world relays, but the team would require substantial preparation as well as multiple races to prop them up the rankings.
--Agencies
