Athletics: Ghana’s Martha Bissah shines in USA

Halfway through her collegiate indoor track career, Martha Bissah has still yet to lose an individual race at the MEAC Indoor Track & Field Championships.

The sophomore from Ghana defended her conference indoor titles in the mile and 3,000 meters Saturday, earning Women’s Most Outstanding Runner honors at the MEAC Indoor Championship for the second straight year at the Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex.

Bissah had a role in 46 of the 70 points scored at the meet by the Spartan women, who finished fifth overall. North Carolina A&T repeated as MEAC women’s indoor team champion with 173.5 points.

Bissah secured gold medals in the mile and 3,000m and also ran a leg on NSU’s third-place 4×400 meter relay team Saturday. That came on the heels of her wins Friday in the 800 meters and with NSU’s distance medley relay team. She has eight gold medals – six individual – in the first two MEAC indoor competitions of her career.

Bissah sprinted to the front of the pack on the first lap of the mile Saturday and never looked back. She slowly pulled away and posted a winning time of 4 minutes, 53.08 seconds. Runner-up Destiny Stanford of Howard was the closest competitor in 5:02.80.

In the 3,000 meters, Bissah, Florida A&M’s Emmax Kiplagat and Hampton’s Janet Okeago pushed the pace early and remained bunched together for most of the race. Bissah found another gear in the final couple laps, sprinting past the other two and posting a PR of 10:07.07 to win by nearly three seconds.

In other events on Saturday, senior Tasia Baxter cleared a height of 10 feet, 11.5 inches to place fourth in the pole vault. The Spartans also had fifth-place finishes Saturday from Taejah Robertson in the 60-meter hurdles (8.51) and Ashah Koech in the 3,000 (10:30.98), while freshman Malika Pride took eighth in the 400 meters (57.90).

The Spartans’ team of Pride, Bissah, Tyrika Lee and Chazmin Fullwood finished the meet by running a season-best 4×400 relay time of 3:49.03 en route to third place in the event.