Sports News of Friday, 25 June 2021
Source: GNA
2021-06-25
Former Olympic gold medalist, Martha Bissah
Former Olympic gold medalist, Martha Bissah, has petitioned the Ministry of Youth and Sports to overturn the “unlawful” indefinite ban slapped on her six years ago by the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA).
In a petition letter to the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Thursday, June 24, 23-year old Bissah said she was at the verge of qualifying to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, and called on the Minister, Mr. Mustapha Ussif to intervene in order to compete for Ghana at the World’s stage.
She said “I am a track and field athlete, and my specialties are 800m, 1500m, 3000m and mile events. Currently, I am the only Ghanaian athlete ever to have won a GOLD MEDAL in any Olympic competition. On 23nd August 2014, in Nanjing, China, I won Ghana’s first ever GOLD MEDAL in the women’s 800m at the age of 16.
“However, in 2015 the Ghana Athletics Association and Professor Francis Dodoo unlawfully slapped an indefinite ban on me for no tangible reason. I have been serving this ban for six years and counting.
“I am in the process of qualifying for the 2021 summer Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo, Japan, I therefore call on the Ministry of Youth and Sports to intervene and use its powers to overturn this unlawful and unjust infringement against my human right and gender, Please note, this also happened to me when I was a minor and my right as a child was abused which affected me psychologically and physically.
“Last but not the least I am an Olympian and a property of both the Sports Ministry and the Ghana Olympic Committee, which are the mothers of all sports in Ghana,” she added.