Ghana’s Relay Debacle: A tale of disappointment fuelled by coaching chaos and missteps

Another high level relay race, another level of disappointment unlocked. After no-shows in all the events at the Olympic Games for Ghana, all eyes turned to the relay team. Ranked 5th in the world before the Games, there was a huge sense of expectation that Ghana’s relay team would go on, put up a great showing and qualify to run in the final on August 9. It did not happen.

The relay team was disqualified over a delay in the changeover from Ibrahim Fuseini to Joseph Paul Amoah. Before that though, Benjamin Azamati and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu had had their own mishap with the first baton change. For Amoah and Azamati who ran the second leg, it felt like something they had already witnessed. It might have felt like one of the races they had ran in the past where they have had near misses – only that this was messier.

Ghana’s hopes of winning a medal in #Paris2024 ended today after the 4*100m relay team was disqualified @Bill_Eshun looks at some of the relay problems in the past#3SportsGH pic.twitter.com/Tfo4M6wwhN

— #3Sports (@3SportsGh) August 8, 2024

The race started with rising athlete, Abdul Rashid Saminu who was impressive in the 100m heats and the semifinal. The sprinter qualified to run the 200m at the Olympic Games but decided to decline because of a collective decision from the technical team to have him run in the 4x100m relay race; painfully forgetting the main rule of the relay that how quick the changeovers are usually counts for more than how fast the athlete may be.

• Saminu explains baton mishap in 4x100m disappointment

That, for me, is where the problems began. It is every athlete’s dream to run at the Olympic Games. None more so than a first-ever one where the eyes of the world will be watching and racing in individual events are the height of this prestige. So for Saminu to opt out of the 200m race to “focus” on the 4x100m relay was not just shocking but baffling in many ways.

A team that didn’t need changing

Ghana qualified for the 4x100m race at the Olympics in Bahamas this year with a team determined to achieve great things. That team had Ibrahim Fuseini, Isaac Botsio, Benjamin Azamati and Joseph Paul Amoah. They faltered in the first race but the second proved crucial. In that race, Ghana ran 38.29 seconds (the team’s season best) with very interesting split times. Fuseini who started the race had a split of 10.69s, Botsio ran 9.13, Azamati ran 9.35s and then Joe Paul finished it off with 9.12s. That was by far one of the best relay races I have seen Ghana ran since they broke the Africa Games record in Rabat in 2019 with 38.30s.

Ghana’s relay team problems run deep on the big stage#3SportsGH #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/plx2bjpdRH

— #3Sports (@3SportsGh) August 8, 2024

At African Championship in Douala in June, Ghana finished with a gold medal – running a time of 38.63s. The quartet of possibly the next generation of relay runners; Ibrahim Fuseini, Isaac Botsio, Abdul Rasheed Saminu and Edwin Gadayi.

Two championships, two different teams and the onus lied on the coaching staff to make a decision on who had to ran at the Olympic Games and they fumbled it completely.

The most used adage in sports across the world is that “You do not change a winning team”. What happened to that adage at the Olympic Games? Why did we need to change the positions of the runners and why was Isaac Botsio left out of the team’s roster with the year he had had?

A farcical coaching carousel

In many sports, chopping and changing coaches has never helped the players or athletes. Ghana has ran 5 relay races this year; The African Games in March, the Penn Relays in April, the World Relay Championships in Bahamas, the African Championships in Cameroon and then the Olympic Games.

“I’ll leave this one to the Athletics Association”

Benjamin Graham on why Abdul-Rasheed Saminu opted out of 200m and competed in the 4*100m relays#3SportsGH #Paris360 #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/LADkerBBMq

— #3Sports (@3SportsGh) August 8, 2024

In all of these five competitions, we have had four coaches. Former sprinter, Eric Nkansah led the team out at the African Games where we won silver. It was disappointing. The team had won gold in unfamiliar territory with a much younger team and it was every Ghanaian had the hope of seeing the team win gold again on home turf. In turn, we were beaten to first place by Nigeria: travesty.

• Ghana’s relay Wahala: Long-term problem continues to linger after exit from Paris
• Changeover error again? Ghanaians react to 4x100m team’s disqualification

We went into the World Relay Championships in Bahamas with former University of Ghana team coach, Elorm Amenakpor who has coached Azamati since his days in Legon. In Douala, it was a former coach at the University of Development Studies, Robert Dwumfour. These two coaches brought successes.

There is a thing about this country. It loves to fidget with things that aren’t broken. At the Olympic Games, we took Andrew Owusu. It felt like throwing a spanner in the works.

Owusu is Ghana’s record holder in triple jump and highly respected in the sport in Ghana. But was he really the one to entrust this very promising team to? Why were the other completely sidelined when the biggest competition came by?

“It didn’t go as planned”

Media attaché for team Ghana, Benjamin Graham reacts to the disqualification of Ghana’s 4*100m relay team

He spoke on #Paris360#3SportsGH #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/cKq7rshDK6

— #3Sports (@3SportsGh) August 8, 2024

Andrew Owusu may be experienced but the sprints are very different from the jumps and he needed a sprint coach by his side to help these athletes and properly arrange them on the track. This is the first time since 2019 that Ghana’s relay team has not made the final of any competition they have ran in.

On the account of this, Andrew Owusu has failed woefully and that makes the decision to hand the team to him all the more ridiculous.

Will it get better for Ghana?

Ghanaians have always rallied behind their sports teams. From football to athletics, there is always a deep connection. There have been penalty heartbreaks, near misses in football and then relay disappointment that date all the way back to 1996. But every time another event comes by we wear our colours with pride.

The new crop of athletes coming through like Isaac Botsio, Ibrahim Fuseini and Abdul Rasheed Saminu need all the support they can get. There is Edwin Gadayi who unfortunately could not make it to the Olympic Games, James Dadzie who only just returned from a long layoff due to injury and then Brock Appiah who could all get better in the coming years. To get them to top level though needs a lot of work and focus.

Do athletes need governmental support? They do. Do athletes need to do better for themselves? They have to as well. The coaches need a lot more acumen to assess races properly and avoid mistakes.

There is hope but hope is a thing with feathers. It is here one day, tomorrow it is gone.