‘GAA has not spoken to me again on scholarship’ – Martha Bissah

Sports News of Thursday, 5 March 2015

Source: citifmonline.com

Mahama With Martha Bissah1

Ghanaian athlete Martha Bissah has told Citi Sports in an exclusive interview that she is waiting on the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) for a response on the outfit’s scholarship to the United States.

According to Bissah, the GAA spoke to her about the scholarship in 2014, but she wanted some time to think about the proposition before giving a response, but the GAA was yet to get her take on the offer.

She explained that GAA boss, Professor Francis Dodoo, did speak to her about studying and training in the United States but after stating that she needed to think through matters, the GAA had not followed up and she was, therefore, surprised that the outfit has stated that she turned down the GAA’s scholarship.

“I really do not like what is going on. I never said I would not take the offer they made when we returned from the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China. I told them it was a bit too soon so I could not go and I asked them to be patient with me. Prof. Dodoo told me to give it a thought and I agreed to do so. Afterwards, I heard nothing from them. They did not even call to even ask for my response for the scholarship. I became very worried when I heard all the stories in the media because I do not understand why the GAA will say such a thing,” said Bissah to Citi Sports on Wednesday.

The athlete’s manager, Mickey Osei-Berko, explained that Bissah had not given any responses to the GAA because she was not in a position to fully grasp the details of the offer.

He said neither the GAA and government had made their offer fully known to the athlete and focusing on the issue was negatively affecting Bissah.

“The details of the GAA scholarship offer have not come to the fore for Martha to know what the scholarship is about. So, obviously, she cannot [tell] whether she will take it or not. Even with the President’s offer, she has not taken a decision on that either. Her focus is now on training and preparing for future competitions. The media frenzy is disturbing her concentration now.

“I believe that in the near future, the GAA or the Government will come forward and give details of the scholarship offer because we all want to support her. She is a world class athlete and she deserves all the help to get to where she wants to get to.”