Amponsah clinches fifth place at World Junior Championships

Sprinter Janet Amponsah clinched fifth place in the 200m final with a new personal best (PB) of 23.41 secs at the 14th IAAF World Junior Athletics Championship in Barcelona.

Janet, who’s PB in the 200m stood at 23.48, knew she had to punch above her weight to grab a medal after clocking 23.49 secs to reach the final.

She ran a gutsy personal best to beat people who were ranked higher than her before the race, and end up in the top 5.The race was won by Anthonique Strachan of the Bahamas (22.53), followed by the USA pair of Olivia Ekpone (23.15) and Dezerea Bryant (23.15), and Great Britain’s Desiree Henry (23.34).

By far, this has been Janet Amponsah’s breakthrough year after a very impressive outing dating back to the National Junior Athletics Championship in March where she first run under 23 secs, after running 23.85.

She followed up that performance by running 23.67 at the inaugural West African Junior Athletics Championship in Abidjan where her two gold medals in the 100m and 200m respectively helped Ghana to win the championship.

That wasn’t all because Janet again broke her personal best record at the National Athletics Championship after claiming second position in a time of 23.48 in the 200m final. She went further to win gold medals in the 100m , 200m as well as anchoring the 4x100 relay team at the ECOWAS Games before taking silver medals in the 100m and 200m events at the rLG Ghana Grand Prix in Kumasi.

She gave further proof of her new found form by reaching the finals of the 100m and 200m at the African Athletics Championship in Benin last month.

It is also quite noteworthy that before 2012, she had never run under 24 seconds, and so stringing together more than a dozen races this year, and having every single one under 24 seconds, is exceptional. and she has also stepped up her performances in the 100m.

She has indeed had a very hectic season: between June 14 and 20th, she ran 5 races at the national champs and 5 races at ECOWAS, then a week later she did the same in Benin.

The head coach of the Greater Accra Athletics region, Logosu Amuzu is hugely credited for the success story of Janet Amponsah. It will be recalled that Janet was part of the local athletics team that camped at the El-Wak Sports Stadium from the beginning of the year to present.

Janet is one of the many athletes who have benefited from the new policies of the local athletics governing body who have set out a well laid down selection policy to the national teams and a good structure for the development of the sport in the country for the last two years.