Athletes on their marks! …as athletics roars off today at Paris 2024
Paris 2024 Olympic Games fans will shift their attention to the tracks at the Stade de France Stadium from today where the kings and queens of athletics showcase their speed, endurance, willpower, and prowess to challenge existing world records to irk their name in gold.
Ghana, a regular since debuting at the 1952 Helsinki Games, has seen its athletes struggle for honours on the tracks till date.
Beginning today, Ghana’s duo of men’s 100-metre record holders, Benjamin KwakuAzamati and Abdul Rasheed Samanu, will start the quest to win for Ghana that elusive medal on the tracks when they line up against the best.
Azamati, who is competing at his second Olympics, will step onto the tracks with the likes of defending Olympic Games gold medalist, Lamont Marcell Jacobs, world championship gold medalist, Noah Lyles, Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, Botswana’s LetsileTebogo, Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, and South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson, among others.
Azamati’s fastest time of the season, 10.05 seconds (+1.0 wind), falls outside the top 10 fastest times heading into today’s heats.
However, chieftains of the sport believe that a lot of things go into winning a race, some of which Azamati must get right, including mother luck.
Also on the tracks today will be first-timer, Abdul-Rasheed Saminu, who will be making his Olympic debut in the men’s 200-metre event.
The 22-year-old sprinter from the University of South Florida clocked an impressive 20.12 seconds in the 200 metres at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track and Field Championship.
Having recently anchored Ghana’s relay team to win gold at the African Athletics Championships in Douala, many believe Saminu will not be overawed by the moment.
Also in action today will be swimmer,Joselle Alice Mensah, who will compete in the women’s 50-metre freestyle in Heat 6.
The quartet of Azamati, Joseph Paul Amoah, Fuseini Ibrahim, and Isaac Botsio will take their turn on the track on August 8 in round one of the 4x100m relay.
BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY