Editorial by Ghanaian Times: We must reverse baton changeover ‘curse’ in athletics

The World’s most popular multi-sports event, the Olympics games, branded this year ‘Paris 2024’, came to a close on Sunday at the Stade de France after 19 days of thrills and excitement.

We are not too surprised that Team Ghana came home empty-handed in the events we participated in.

Of course, we cannot reap where we have not sown, but suffice it to commend our team for their participation and competing with the best in the world.

We at the Ghanaian Times cannot be happy with the team’s performance; our disappointment stems from the comedy of errors in high-profile athletic events, especially in the relay race.

Ghana has been consistent in the sprint and 4×100 meter events at the Olympics and other international multi-sport events and has gained an appreciable level of experience and inspiration.

So, the whole nation was hopeful that the relay team at Paris 2024 would make the country proud by mounting the podium to collect a medal after the country’s poor performance in the boxing, swimming, and female high jump events.

But our history of baton exchange mishaps reared its ugly head in the team again.

The relay quartet of Abdul-Rasheed Saminu, Benjamin Azamati, Ibrahim Fuseini, and Joseph Paul Amoah put up a strong show in the semifinals, crossing the line in the 4×100 meters at 38.62 seconds in the sixth position, but was disqualified for exchanging the baton outside the designated exchange zone.

The baton exchange delay slowed the quartet’s momentum, and with that incident, the country’s last hope of winning a medal came crashing down and ended the dream of another eventful game.

In athletics, baton changeover is very crucial because it is vital to maintaining speed and momentum in the race, so the rules are strictly adhered to, especially with the application of technology.

We recall that at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, our relay quartet was disqualified for a baton exchange error.

We suffered similar baton exchange errors at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games, which took place in 2021 due to the disruption of events by COVID-19, the World Athletic Championship in 2021, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

Sadly, back home in Ghana in March, during the 13th Afri­ca Games at the University of Ghana Stadium, Accra, a baton exchange hitch between the third leg Solomon Hammond and the anchor, Joseph Paul Amoah, robbed our quartet of gold medals, which Nigeria eventually won in the finals of the 4×100 relay.

We at the Ghanaian Times are extremely worried about this trend in our athletics.

We believe it is time we overcame what appears to be a baton changeover ‘curse’.

Ghanaian teams are no novices in track and field events, and we wonder why this issue of baton exchange keeps recurring anytime they participate in high-profile sports.

The history of baton exchange errors by our 4×100 relay teams is embarrassing; it appears the teams have not been learning lessons from previous failures to improve upon that crucial segment of the relay race in subsequent events.

Be that as it may, we still have confidence in our athletes to get over this difficulty through improved training in baton exchange techniques and communication.

We expect that in subsequent outings at such major athletic events, the country’s teams will have eradicated their nemesis and had a seamless baton changeover in the relay race.