Local athletes
Two of Ghana’s best home-based athletes have plunged deep into training to ensure glory in the maiden rLG Ghana Grand Prix.
DAILY GUIDE SPORTS’ probe into the athletes’ preparations has revealed that sprinters Emmanuel Appiah-Kubi and Beatrice Gyaman have set their minds of making Ghana proud in the nation’s first ever International Track and Field Meet scheduled for the Baba Yara Stadium on August 6.
Appiah-Kubi and Gyaman are confident that they will qualify for the upcoming IAAF World Athletics Championship and the All-African Games (AAG) respectively having trained in Finland as part of an eight-member athletics team for the past weeks.
To the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), the forthcoming rLG athletics meet will provide a platform for local components to compete with their foreign counterparts.
The Association also seeks to offer the local and the international components the chance to put their houses in order to meet qualifying standards for the 2011 WC in Daegu (South Korea) and the 2011 AAG in Maputo (Mozambique).
Appiah-Kubi, 22, having qualified for the All African Games, revealed on ETV from Finland that: “I want to make the ‘A’ qualify mark for Daegu.
“I have already qualified for the All African Games but the World Championship is my main target now.
“I just want to put myself into the race. If I don’t qualify, it will be a big blow for me because my main target this year is to run side by side with the big names,” he added.
The former Kumasi High student noted: “The ‘A’ qualifying time is 10.24 and I have done 10.34, (which is the ‘B’ standard) and so I have some seconds to enter the ‘A’ standard.”
Sprinter Beatrice, a member of the famous silver medal winning 4X100 relay team at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, said she is hoping to make the final cut for the All-African Games.
“I have planned to do a good time in the 100m to enable me qualify for the All-African Games,” said 24-year-old Beatrice.
“I’m very confident of making it because of the tough training regime I have undergone in Finland.”
Beatrice, a Ghana National Fire Service employee and Appiah Kubi will join 50 other local athletes who were selected for the one-day professional event in Kumasi at the just ended National Unity Games.
By Kofi Owusu Aduonum