Africa's newly minted female queen Champion Vida Anim was also perhaps the most tested athlete at the African senior athletics championships in Mauritius. All Sports can confirm that she went through three doping tests and passed all with a clean bill of performance enhancing drugs. The best female athlete in Africa today, Anim surprised everybody and herself by winning three gold medals in a heady 72 hour period.
She grabbed gold in the 100 and 200 meters and led the 4*100 relay women to another Gold medal berth.
The German based athlete who has won so much gold she could be nicknamed the ?Golden Girl? believes her success in this years competition will propel her to greater heights.
By her feat she gets to represent Africa in the Athletics World Cup in Greece. It's a meet which will bring the high and mighty names in athletics together but Vida has got only one thing on her mind: To make Ghana, and Africa proud of her. ″I will do what I know best if I get to the World Cup and will surely make Africa proud. I'm so happy that I will be at the World Cup, I have waited for such a long time in my career to prove my worth and I will just train hard to lift the name of Ghana and Africa high?.
With that happiness comes the financial windfall of winning medals at the African championships. Every gold medal was worth $5,000 while silver attracted $3000 and bronze $2000. The Ghana Athletics Association which instituted the financial rewards scheme also approved a $2000 dollar incentive for getting into the finals of each competition.
Anim's success guarantees her at least USD 15,000 from Ghana. All Sports can confirm the money has even been paid to them.
Could it be that Anim's success will herald a new dawn for Ghanaian Athletics? Absolutely is the reply from Sandy Osei Agyemang who is the Chairman and lead man of Ghana Athletics. Sandy describes Ghana's four gold, two bronze haul from the Mauritius games as a response by the athletes to the good leadership of the Association.″ They all see what we are doing to help lift the sport (Athletics) up and we will do all we can to motivate them. Sometimes you have to come to the aid of these athletes. In Athletics you make money only when you run. So sometimes we may even have to come to the aid of someone who lacks a little bit of cash and we do it. There is always the psychology aspect as well. We do all that before games,? Sandy Agyemang told All Sports.
Whichever way it is viewed, Ghana has impressed big time in Africa. Ignatius Gaisah set the tone with a gold medal in the long jump. By the end of competition, Ghana's four gold netted the fifth spot in the competition. ?But you see we competed in only six events while others did about 20 events. So that is a remarkable achievement,? argues the Ghana Athletics chief.
Vida Anim is now set to be the pinup girl of Ghanaian athletics. But at just 22 years old, the pressure on her shoulders will be very high but Sandy Osei Agyeman says she can handle it. ?She knows the score, she knows what is at stake and she does not mess around. It will be perfectly alright for Ghanaians to have high expectations of her.?
Vida has been running on the athletics circuit since 2000. She equaled her personal best of 22.90 in the 200 meters in a competition she run in Brussels in May 2003
