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Ghana’s 4x100m relay team left Tokyo drenched in rain and heartbreak, but with heads held high and a renewed fire to chase the nation’s first global sprint medal.
At the Japan National Stadium over the weekend, the quartet of Ibrahim Fuseini, Benjamin Azamati, Joseph Paul Amoah and Abdul-Rasheed Saminu produced back-to-back sub-38 second runs that stunned the field, only to be cruelly denied a podium finish in last Sunday’s final.
Having stormed through their semi-final with a blistering new national record of 37.79 seconds, the Ghanaians looked poised to end the country’s long medal drought.
But in the final on a rain-soaked track, despite running another impressive 37.93 seconds, anchor man Saminu was outsprinted in the home straight by American superstar Noah Lyles, Canada’s Olympic champion Andre De Grasse, and Dutch-Ghanaian wonderkid Raphael Afrifa, leaving Ghana agonisingly in fourth.
It was a déjà vu of near-misses. In 2023 at Eugene, USA, Ghana placed fifth in the 4x100m final. This time they moved a step closer, and the message from the camp was clear: Ghana’s time is coming.
“We can do it,” declared veteran sprinter Azamati, rallying his teammates after the disappointment. “We came fifth last time, now we’re fourth. I believe at the next World Championships we’ll make the podium. We just need to regroup, fix our baton exchanges and sharpen our speed.”
Amoah, the team’s heartbeat since their famous 2019 African Games gold in Rabat, credited their strong showing in Tokyo to solid preparation funded by the Ghana Olympic Committee. But he was quick to remind authorities that consistent support would make the difference between ‘almost men’ and medal winners.
“We gave it our all. Two sub-38s in one weekend, you can’t ask for much more,” he said. “We had a good camp, good energy, quality coaches. This is proof that with the right systems, we can go higher.”
Beyond the relays, Ghana found new promise in its individual athletes. Rising star Abdul-Rasheed Saminu, the national 100m record holder, clocked 10.08 seconds in the semi-finals — a whisker away from making the final.
And in the women’s high jump, 22-year-old Rose Amoanimaa Yeboah, Ghana’s ‘golden girl’, announced herself on the world stage by reaching the final at her first World Championships.
She eventually placed 15th after failing to clear 1.93m, but her presence among the elite is a pointer to brighter days ahead.
Fuseini and Azamati, meanwhile, bowed out earlier in the 200m and 100m heats, but their relay heroics underscored Ghana’s progress in global sprinting.
