2024 Olympics: Ghana’s last hope of medal rests on shoulders of 4x100 relay team

Things haven’t gone according to plan for Ghana at the 2024 Olympic Games yet, but the country will have its last shot at winning a medal when the 4x100 relay team takes to the tracks on Thursday morning.

Team Ghana has so far fallen short in the various disciplines despite presenting athletes in swimming, high jump and athletics.

Unfortunately, the country was not represented in boxing, a sport that has given Ghana four of its five medals won since the inception of the Olympics, after all the Ghanaian boxers failed to secure qualification.

Team Ghana's shortfalls at Paris Olympics

But the die is now cast: Promising Ghanaian swimmer Harry Stacey was eliminated after finishing seventh in the Men's 100m Freestyle last week.

This meant he couldn’t advance to the semi-finals in what was only his debut appearance at the Olympics. Joselle Alice Mensah also narrowly missed out on a semi-final berth despite impressing in the Women’s 50m Freestyle, where she placed fourth with a time of 26.81.

By the time it was Rose Amoanimaa Yeboah’s turn to compete, the pressure was already ramping up and she was also unsuccessful in her 1.92m attempt.

Yeboah made a great start to the event when she cleared the 1.83m bar in just her second attempt. When the bar was raised to 1.88m, she cleared it again with ease. The reigning African champion was then tasked with clearing the 1.92m bar to give herself a chance of progressing to the final.

However, although the target was below her personal best of 1.97m, she failed in all three of her attempts to clear the bar, leading to her elimination.

Ghana's 4x100 relay team up next

In athletics, Benjamin Azamati and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu gave a good account of themselves in the 100m but their efforts weren’t good enough to secure their places in the final.

Azamati sealed his place in the semi-finals when he finished second in Heat 1 of the previous round, with his time of 10.08 seconds only bettered by Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in the heat.

For Saminu, he ran a time of 10.06 seconds to finish third behind Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajayi and reigning Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs in Heat 7 to advance to the next stage.

Both Ghanaians, though, couldn’t reprise their impressive performances, with Azamati finishing ninth in the Semi-Final 1 after recording a time of 10.17 seconds, while Saminu also only managed a seventh-place finish in the Semi-Final 3 with a time of 10.05 seconds.

Azamati and Saminu will, however, have one more opportunity to make amends when they compete as part of Ghana’s 4x100 relay team on Thursday.

Ghana’s relay team – which also includes Isaac Botsio, Fuseini Ibrahim and Joseph Paul Amoah – is currently the country’s brightest spot. Despite being beset by technical errors in recent competitions, including baton change mishaps, the team has enjoyed a great 2024 so far.

Team Ghana won silver at the 4x100m relays at the 2023 African Games earlier this year, before winning gold at the African Athletics Seniors Championships in June. The also ran an impressive time of 38.29 seconds at the Bahamas World Athletics Relays to qualify for the Olympics.

Ghana will start Thursday’s 4x100 relays in Heat 2 and will be competing against Jamaica, Canada, Germany, China, Liberia, Brazil and hosts France.

Only the top three of from the two Heats will automatically qualify for the final, while two more teams with the fastest times will also advance.

Saminu is set to start the race for Ghana before handing the baton to Botsio, who will in turn find Azamati, with Amoah set to run the anchor leg.

“I think we are ready to compete. We're also hoping that everything with the baton passes goes flawlessly because the whole world is watching. Hopefully, God will be with us, and everything will be fine,” Amoah told Graphic Sports ahead of the race.

Ghana’s last hope of winning a medal at this year’s Olympics currently rests on the shoulders of the 4x100 relay team, who would need to run sub 38 seconds to stand a good chance of making the final.

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