Ghana and Nigeria renew rivalry

The age old rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria has been rekindled at the ongoing ECOWAS Games in the country.

Events on the athletics track indicate that Nigeria is bent on making sure they defeat Ghana on their own home soil after the Ghana National junior athletes team piped them at the last West Africa Junior Athletics Championship in Abidjan, in April.

The West African giants have won 8 gold medals compared to the five Ghana has collected after day 2 of the competition.

This means Team Ghana has to do much more better on the final day of competition on Wednesday, 19th June, 2011 at the El Wak Sports stadium to stem the tide.

The task might look daunting but the Nigerians know very well what Ghana is capable of after Team Ghana did a remarkable turnaround to steal the ultimate crown in Abidjan during the inaugural West Africa Junior Athletics Championship.

The boys 4x400m relay team won the final event at the Félix Houphouet-Boigny stadium in stunning fashion to silence the stubborn Nigerians.

Perhaps what has epitomized the healthy rivalry between the pair was the girls 100m final where Ghanaian sprint sensation Janet Amponsah beat Nigeria’s Josephine Omaka with a very close finish in a time of 11.52 secs.

The race was decided on the finish line where Amponsah used her experience, dipping at the right moment unlike Josephine who dipped much earlier than expected.

The Nigerian officials only accepted that their athlete had been beaten after looking at the photo finish. It is most likely that we will need another photo finish to decide who wins the Athletics competition.