Nsiah’s Grief
I will never forget the look of disbelief on Christian Nsiah's face when he walked into my apartment on the evening of 17th April 2002. He could hardly speak and trembled with emotion, part anger and part disbelief. The first words out of his mouth were "have you read the article about the Commonwealth games team selection on ghanaweb.com?", "how can they justify their actions?", "am I supposed to run a world record in order to be recognized by my country?"What do you say to an athlete who only two weeks ago, run the fourth fastest 200m time (20.48 secs) ever by a Ghanaian athlete? How do you console him? Do you tell him “sorry but your exploits on the track are the last thing we care about”? Or, “our officials need no justification, no matter how erroneous their decisions”? In short, they do not have to answer to anybody.
Our stand as Athletes
However, before I continue, let me set the record straight that, our best performing athlete over the past two years, Aziz Zakari, has spoken out against this irrational and hasty selection process. If I were him, I would also be interested in ensuring that the best athletes got there so that I would have the best shot at a relay medal too. Let it be known that we as a group, i.e. foreign-based athletes stand united against this process. Because for us to gain the respect that we deserve us a group, and as individuals, we cannot stand for or condone such an irrational selection process. When less qualified athletes represent us as a group or as a nation, we all look bad. It is precisely because of the corruptness of our selection process that athletes banded together for the time in the history of Ghana athletics to form a formal organization. The athletes voted to elect Dr. Francis Dodoo, myself, and Aziz Zakari as chairman, secretary, and treasurer, respectively.
Aziz has spoken out, but others who have been inappropriately selected may not be able to speak out or may actually choose not to. However, each of us should remember that when they fall out of favor with these same officials, not even a world record will get them on the team. Francis Dodoo always warned us about that, and urged us to ensure that we advocated a performance-based selection, even if it meant our personal exclusion.
Athletes - whether we like it or not - are easily identifiable role models to people the world over, because they embody the triumph of the human spirit. We can relate because even though we can't be like most of them, we can borrow from their drive. We can admire their determination and seek to imbibe their values to push us to our limits in varied contexts. And so it goes that national athletes effectively embody and spread some level of goodwill and character affinity, for the nations they represent. Does it not behoove us to ensure they are afforded the best opportunities to do so? (Nii Ayikwei Quaye, 2002)
Misrepresentation of Facts
I have know Dr Owusu Ansah for the past 8 years and have always considered him a friend, and believed that he genuinely wanted to help athletics. However, friendship cannot stand in the way of justice. I took time to read the article and I was shocked at the blatant misrepresentation of facts by Dr. Owusu Ansah to justify the selection of specific athletes for the Commonwealth games. I still find it hard to believe that Doc did what he did, yet, all quotes regarding the selection process was attributed to him. The first thing that crossed my mind upon reading the article, was "well done, now at least the rest of Ghana will in the next couple of days be given a chance to see what I've been talking about for the past 2 1/2 years".
I remember having a conversation with Dr. Owusu Ansah in Sydney Australia (2000), where we both agreed that it would be better i.e. in the future, to send a smaller contingent of our best athletes to major championships rather than a large group that includes “borderline” or even “non-qualified” athletes. But his announcement last week is far “left” from those ideals he expressed to me two years ago.
I would like to know whether Dr Owusu Ansah dug up his supporting evidence himself or whether it was fed to him. Either way, what kind of official representation does athletics have when personal records of athletes are misstated? As head of the International Games Organizing Committee, he has ultimate responsibility for his words. Margaret Simpson’s personal best in the heptathlon is 5836 pts. Yet it was reported as OVER 6000 pts. Margaret is a fine athlete and could hold her own at the Commonwealth games, yet she cannot be selected ahead of other qualified – and, in fact, more qualified athletes – given the fact that she is yet to compete in her primary event in 2002.
I hope Ghanaians out there now understand why we send people to major competitions such as the Olympic Games and they end up not competing. Simply, we report false performances to the IAAF who promptly rule the respective athletes ineligible. Yes, athletes may have sent in false performances in the past. But, what good is a federation if it fails to verify performances before shedding thousands of dollars on tickets
Use of the Internet for Verification of Performances
I was the first athlete to stress the importance of using the Internet, specifically the IAAF's web site, in addition to that run by Tilastopaja OY (based in Finland) for independent verification of performances by Ghanaian athletes. For over a year this valuable resource and cost saving measure i.e. monitoring of performances via Web, was not done. When our officials realized that the heat was getting unbearable, they started claiming that they will use different web sites to verify performances. Unfortunately, this was all lip service just to blow smoke in the eyes of the Ghanaian public. Because had anybody paid attention they would have realized back in January that something was wrong, when the chief Athletics coach stated that in addition to the IAAF's web site, he will contact different European federations to monitor the performance of foreign-based athletes. No federation (European or other) keeps statistics on athletes from other countries. Did nobody realize that such a statement could be compared to Nigeria asking Ghana for seasonal updates on its athletes? It does not work that way. Most of the competitions held in Europe are neither organized nor managed by national federations. Why on earth would other federations bother to keep statistics on Ghanaian athletes?
GAAA and Ministry of Youth and Sports
Earlier this year, I took it upon myself to create a website dedicated to Ghana Athletics with the hope that, the web site would serve as a focal point where anybody with access to a computer could check on the current performances of Ghanaian athletes all around the world. In fact, I personally sent a letter to the Chairman of the GAAA notifying him about our displeasure with the current state of athletics (from an athlete's standpoint of view) and informed him that "Ghana Athletics" now had a web site, www.Ghanaathletics.com, from which he and members of the association could check on the seasonal progress of every athlete outside Ghana. In it, I expressed my wish that he would reply to the letter to let me know what he thought about our concerns. He did not reply.
I also went as far as writing to the Minister of Youth and Sports an eight page letter detailing what I thought was wrong with athletics and suggested ways in which we could improve our current predicament. In the letter to the minister, I pointed out the fact that this was not a personal fight with individuals in the GAAA but rather against the system which has failed us far too many times irrespective of the fact that different individuals had been running the system over the past 10 years. To ensure that the minister received the letter I made sure that it was hand-delivered to his office. In that letter, I expressed my frustrations about the fact that Ghana would probably end up spending money on purchasing equipment for the Commonwealth games and that if we acted now, we stood a good chance of securing sponsorship from one of the major shoe companies i.e. Nike, Reebok, or adidas. Again, I have been proven right. As Dr Owusu Ansah said, part of the budget has been dedicated to equipment, which we may have gotten free. One can only speculate why a country will prefer to buy equipment with its scarce money, when there is the possibility of getting better quality equipment for free. In addition, I explained to him, the Minister, that there were individuals i.e. Ghanaian citizens who were willing to go solicit sponsorship for the athletes but required his permission in order to advance. They had been in touch numerous times with the deputy Minister who indicated that he had passed on the information to the Minister. In my opinion I said, looking for sponsorship, though there was no guarantee of securing any, was better than not doing anything at all. I never heard back from him.
Am I a Target for Speaking Out?
Isn't it ironic, that even though I am currently (as of 20th April 2002) ranked No. 1 (tied with an Australian jumper) amongst triple jumpers from Commonwealth countries, I was not even mentioned on that list? Would one not think that as the national record holder in the long jump and triple jump, and the last individual athlete to win a Commonwealth games medal (Silver in 1998), coupled with the fact that I am having one of the best years I have ever had in my career, my name may have been mentioned? It is difficult not to link my exclusion to statements made by some of our officials that “those people who keep writing letters to the news media will not be selected.” But, why should my calling for the repair of a system that was failing athletes and the country lead to my being dropped? Contrary to what some of our officials think, I still have friends amongst them and as I stated earlier, no person of integrity can let friendship stand in the way of the truth. THE TRUTH IS, WE ARE ALL HURTING (ATHLETES AND OFFICIALS), THEREFORE, HOW WE CONDUCT ”BUSINESS” MUST CHANGE.
A Patriotic Fool?
Last year, I did not get the chance to represent Ghana at the world championships was because I was told that I had sent in my performances too late for consideration and that, the federation had no money to pay for the ticket. I was willing to fly myself the short distance from the States to Canada. It was explained to me that the IAAF had provided Ghana with only four tickets of which three would go to athletes and one to the head coach. “We cannot afford to send you” they said. Like the patriotic fool that I was, I believed the story only to find out later that four athletes, not three, of whom only one, Aziz Zakari, was ranked higher than I was on the world list, were sent to the games. To make matters worse, at least three officials also made it to Canada. It was also strange when after three names were published as being selected (Aziz, Simpson, and Andam), a fourth person was covertly added to the team in Canada (Nsiah—Vida, a good friend of mine). But what finally blew me away about last year’s world championship trip though, was when I heard two weeks ago that the chief Athletics coach had been suspended (two weeks) for sending in a bunch (at least 15) of names of non-athletes to the Canadian embassy for visas as part of the world championships (last year) team. Who were these people? This is another perennial problem that is going to end up embarrassing us diplomatically one of these days if we don’t address it.
As Christian Nsiah rightly put it, "tell me if Ghana sports is heading in the right direction?” I am not saying that if you include our best performing athletes, based on current results, that will guarantee Ghana any medals at the Commonwealth games. But, you and I know, as does the GAAA (even if they claim otherwise) that by selecting our best athletes, we dramatically increase our chances of faring better or earning medals at the games.
It is not about Money
It is not about money, because we all know that 2.9 billion cedis was approved for the Commonwealth Games. In addition, the old excuse “he or she did not send in their current performance” can no longer be used because Dr Owusu Ansah has explicitly stated that he has access to the IAAF world rankings. Therefore, the big question is "WHY ARE GOOD ATHLETES, IN SOME CASES RANKED IN THE TOP 3 AMONGST COMMONWEALTH ATHLETES, WITHIN THIER RESPECTIVE EVENTS BEING LEFT OUT IN THE COLD?
The Whole Truth, The Facts, The Data.
world, amongst other athletes from Commonwealth countries, and in Africa as of 20 April 2002.
FASTEN YOUR SEAT BEALTS AND LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bear in mind that the rankings below may have changed as of 20/04/2002
To Be posted later today
Nsiah’s Grief
I will never forget the look of disbelief on Christian Nsiah's face when he walked into my apartment on the evening of 17th April 2002. He could hardly speak and trembled with emotion, part anger and part disbelief. The first words out of his mouth were "have you read the article about the Commonwealth games team selection on ghanaweb.com?", "how can they justify their actions?", "am I supposed to run a world record in order to be recognized by my country?"What do you say to an athlete who only two weeks ago, run the fourth fastest 200m time (20.48 secs) ever by a Ghanaian athlete? How do you console him? Do you tell him “sorry but your exploits on the track are the last thing we care about”? Or, “our officials need no justification, no matter how erroneous their decisions”? In short, they do not have to answer to anybody.
Our stand as Athletes
However, before I continue, let me set the record straight that, our best performing athlete over the past two years, Aziz Zakari, has spoken out against this irrational and hasty selection process. If I were him, I would also be interested in ensuring that the best athletes got there so that I would have the best shot at a relay medal too. Let it be known that we as a group, i.e. foreign-based athletes stand united against this process. Because for us to gain the respect that we deserve us a group, and as individuals, we cannot stand for or condone such an irrational selection process. When less qualified athletes represent us as a group or as a nation, we all look bad. It is precisely because of the corruptness of our selection process that athletes banded together for the time in the history of Ghana athletics to form a formal organization. The athletes voted to elect Dr. Francis Dodoo, myself, and Aziz Zakari as chairman, secretary, and treasurer, respectively.
Aziz has spoken out, but others who have been inappropriately selected may not be able to speak out or may actually choose not to. However, each of us should remember that when they fall out of favor with these same officials, not even a world record will get them on the team. Francis Dodoo always warned us about that, and urged us to ensure that we advocated a performance-based selection, even if it meant our personal exclusion.
Athletes - whether we like it or not - are easily identifiable role models to people the world over, because they embody the triumph of the human spirit. We can relate because even though we can't be like most of them, we can borrow from their drive. We can admire their determination and seek to imbibe their values to push us to our limits in varied contexts. And so it goes that national athletes effectively embody and spread some level of goodwill and character affinity, for the nations they represent. Does it not behoove us to ensure they are afforded the best opportunities to do so? (Nii Ayikwei Quaye, 2002)
Misrepresentation of Facts
I have know Dr Owusu Ansah for the past 8 years and have always considered him a friend, and believed that he genuinely wanted to help athletics. However, friendship cannot stand in the way of justice. I took time to read the article and I was shocked at the blatant misrepresentation of facts by Dr. Owusu Ansah to justify the selection of specific athletes for the Commonwealth games. I still find it hard to believe that Doc did what he did, yet, all quotes regarding the selection process was attributed to him. The first thing that crossed my mind upon reading the article, was "well done, now at least the rest of Ghana will in the next couple of days be given a chance to see what I've been talking about for the past 2 1/2 years".
I remember having a conversation with Dr. Owusu Ansah in Sydney Australia (2000), where we both agreed that it would be better i.e. in the future, to send a smaller contingent of our best athletes to major championships rather than a large group that includes “borderline” or even “non-qualified” athletes. But his announcement last week is far “left” from those ideals he expressed to me two years ago.
I would like to know whether Dr Owusu Ansah dug up his supporting evidence himself or whether it was fed to him. Either way, what kind of official representation does athletics have when personal records of athletes are misstated? As head of the International Games Organizing Committee, he has ultimate responsibility for his words. Margaret Simpson’s personal best in the heptathlon is 5836 pts. Yet it was reported as OVER 6000 pts. Margaret is a fine athlete and could hold her own at the Commonwealth games, yet she cannot be selected ahead of other qualified – and, in fact, more qualified athletes – given the fact that she is yet to compete in her primary event in 2002.
I hope Ghanaians out there now understand why we send people to major competitions such as the Olympic Games and they end up not competing. Simply, we report false performances to the IAAF who promptly rule the respective athletes ineligible. Yes, athletes may have sent in false performances in the past. But, what good is a federation if it fails to verify performances before shedding thousands of dollars on tickets
Use of the Internet for Verification of Performances
I was the first athlete to stress the importance of using the Internet, specifically the IAAF's web site, in addition to that run by Tilastopaja OY (based in Finland) for independent verification of performances by Ghanaian athletes. For over a year this valuable resource and cost saving measure i.e. monitoring of performances via Web, was not done. When our officials realized that the heat was getting unbearable, they started claiming that they will use different web sites to verify performances. Unfortunately, this was all lip service just to blow smoke in the eyes of the Ghanaian public. Because had anybody paid attention they would have realized back in January that something was wrong, when the chief Athletics coach stated that in addition to the IAAF's web site, he will contact different European federations to monitor the performance of foreign-based athletes. No federation (European or other) keeps statistics on athletes from other countries. Did nobody realize that such a statement could be compared to Nigeria asking Ghana for seasonal updates on its athletes? It does not work that way. Most of the competitions held in Europe are neither organized nor managed by national federations. Why on earth would other federations bother to keep statistics on Ghanaian athletes?
GAAA and Ministry of Youth and Sports
Earlier this year, I took it upon myself to create a website dedicated to Ghana Athletics with the hope that, the web site would serve as a focal point where anybody with access to a computer could check on the current performances of Ghanaian athletes all around the world. In fact, I personally sent a letter to the Chairman of the GAAA notifying him about our displeasure with the current state of athletics (from an athlete's standpoint of view) and informed him that "Ghana Athletics" now had a web site, www.Ghanaathletics.com, from which he and members of the association could check on the seasonal progress of every athlete outside Ghana. In it, I expressed my wish that he would reply to the letter to let me know what he thought about our concerns. He did not reply.
I also went as far as writing to the Minister of Youth and Sports an eight page letter detailing what I thought was wrong with athletics and suggested ways in which we could improve our current predicament. In the letter to the minister, I pointed out the fact that this was not a personal fight with individuals in the GAAA but rather against the system which has failed us far too many times irrespective of the fact that different individuals had been running the system over the past 10 years. To ensure that the minister received the letter I made sure that it was hand-delivered to his office. In that letter, I expressed my frustrations about the fact that Ghana would probably end up spending money on purchasing equipment for the Commonwealth games and that if we acted now, we stood a good chance of securing sponsorship from one of the major shoe companies i.e. Nike, Reebok, or adidas. Again, I have been proven right. As Dr Owusu Ansah said, part of the budget has been dedicated to equipment, which we may have gotten free. One can only speculate why a country will prefer to buy equipment with its scarce money, when there is the possibility of getting better quality equipment for free. In addition, I explained to him, the Minister, that there were individuals i.e. Ghanaian citizens who were willing to go solicit sponsorship for the athletes but required his permission in order to advance. They had been in touch numerous times with the deputy Minister who indicated that he had passed on the information to the Minister. In my opinion I said, looking for sponsorship, though there was no guarantee of securing any, was better than not doing anything at all. I never heard back from him.
Am I a Target for Speaking Out?
Isn't it ironic, that even though I am currently (as of 20th April 2002) ranked No. 1 (tied with an Australian jumper) amongst triple jumpers from Commonwealth countries, I was not even mentioned on that list? Would one not think that as the national record holder in the long jump and triple jump, and the last individual athlete to win a Commonwealth games medal (Silver in 1998), coupled with the fact that I am having one of the best years I have ever had in my career, my name may have been mentioned? It is difficult not to link my exclusion to statements made by some of our officials that “those people who keep writing letters to the news media will not be selected.” But, why should my calling for the repair of a system that was failing athletes and the country lead to my being dropped? Contrary to what some of our officials think, I still have friends amongst them and as I stated earlier, no person of integrity can let friendship stand in the way of the truth. THE TRUTH IS, WE ARE ALL HURTING (ATHLETES AND OFFICIALS), THEREFORE, HOW WE CONDUCT ”BUSINESS” MUST CHANGE.
A Patriotic Fool?
Last year, I did not get the chance to represent Ghana at the world championships was because I was told that I had sent in my performances too late for consideration and that, the federation had no money to pay for the ticket. I was willing to fly myself the short distance from the States to Canada. It was explained to me that the IAAF had provided Ghana with only four tickets of which three would go to athletes and one to the head coach. “We cannot afford to send you” they said. Like the patriotic fool that I was, I believed the story only to find out later that four athletes, not three, of whom only one, Aziz Zakari, was ranked higher than I was on the world list, were sent to the games. To make matters worse, at least three officials also made it to Canada. It was also strange when after three names were published as being selected (Aziz, Simpson, and Andam), a fourth person was covertly added to the team in Canada (Nsiah—Vida, a good friend of mine). But what finally blew me away about last year’s world championship trip though, was when I heard two weeks ago that the chief Athletics coach had been suspended (two weeks) for sending in a bunch (at least 15) of names of non-athletes to the Canadian embassy for visas as part of the world championships (last year) team. Who were these people? This is another perennial problem that is going to end up embarrassing us diplomatically one of these days if we don’t address it.
As Christian Nsiah rightly put it, "tell me if Ghana sports is heading in the right direction?” I am not saying that if you include our best performing athletes, based on current results, that will guarantee Ghana any medals at the Commonwealth games. But, you and I know, as does the GAAA (even if they claim otherwise) that by selecting our best athletes, we dramatically increase our chances of faring better or earning medals at the games.
It is not about Money
It is not about money, because we all know that 2.9 billion cedis was approved for the Commonwealth Games. In addition, the old excuse “he or she did not send in their current performance” can no longer be used because Dr Owusu Ansah has explicitly stated that he has access to the IAAF world rankings. Therefore, the big question is "WHY ARE GOOD ATHLETES, IN SOME CASES RANKED IN THE TOP 3 AMONGST COMMONWEALTH ATHLETES, WITHIN THIER RESPECTIVE EVENTS BEING LEFT OUT IN THE COLD?
The Whole Truth, The Facts, The Data.
world, amongst other athletes from Commonwealth countries, and in Africa as of 20 April 2002.
FASTEN YOUR SEAT BEALTS AND LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bear in mind that the rankings below may have changed as of 20/04/2002
To Be posted later today
